Red Scar: The Foreigner
by Spearmann66
Summary: In a place far from home, place full of people who don't know him. A place where he is not haunted by the past. The boy who hails from Russia, Luka Georgyvich Sargeyev came to Japan hoping for a new life. His hopes for a better life is about about change as he is swept up in a terrible disaster that will call upon his long suppressed instincts.
1. Prologue Pt1

**Red Scar**

**An HoTD Fan Story**

**Introduction**

Hello Readers, I'm Spearmann, an fan writer who only aspires to write great stories and this is my take on the story of Highschool of The Dead. Highschool of The Dead is originally a manga written by Daisuke Satou (佐藤 大輔) and Illustrated by Shouji Satou (佐藤ショウジ), and released in April 27th 2011. It is a story about a group of Japanese Highschool teenagers are caught up in a zombie outbreak that has taken over Tokonosu city if not, the whole world. Their only hope is find a way to escape from the falling city and possibly reunite with their families and most importantly survive as an unforeseen disaster looms over their fates. In reality, 2 years ago the writer, Satou-san was gripped by an illness that resulted in his death by Cardiac Disease due to the nature of his occupation and since then the story has come to a hiatus where the manga story never concluded whereas the anime ended on a light hearted note which would have had a greater potential of expanding the story.

In this fan story though, it will take us to a different point of view taking place during the same period as the original story where it focuses on a foreign student from Russia with a grisly background studying in a Japanese Highschool while trying to find purpose in his will. A story which treads into the themes of life, isolation, darkness of human nature, hope, love and belongingness. This is a story about survival, a story of hope and a story of monsters.

*Disclaimer*

I do not own any character or material of the original novel. The characters and events portrayed in the story are fiction and any named persons in the story that are similar to real life are coincidental and not intended to offend the individuals.

* * *

**Lingual Legend**

"sample text" – normal conversation

'sample text' – thoughts of a character

*sample text* - sound effect

\- Insert Text - - Time lapses

/ Insert Text / - To be continued

* * *

**Prologue (Part 1)**

An early sunlight shines through the sills of windows just as the light bakes the concrete in a yellow hue. The birds chirp to greet the sunlight as the chilly winds sweeps through the trees and squeezes through the tightly packed concrete jungles until it comes to a slow wallowing stop just a few fields away from a sprawling Japanese Suburbs overlooking a bridge, taking back by to the city which is now coming back to life. The streetlights slowly fades away as the first buses and trains arrives to patrol around the city looking for passengers. The shop houses open looking for early birds as the nightlife in the districts closes their doors and their bright glaring neon signs shuts away as if to hide the embarrassment of the perverted incidents from the previous night from the commuters rushing by to get to work while peeking at their cellphones. The light blinked on huge TV screens across the central district as the morning news begins with weather forecasts, reporting a fine weather for the day and the following days. Restaurants across the streets prepares their kitchens and tables while they await for the arrival of their fresh ingredients from the market. At the same time, other shops selling commodities such as electronics, books, off-shelf medicines, jewelries and beauty products prepares their catalogue of items and checks their stocks.

One of the shops located in the inner city district usually full of nightclubs, an old man is seen walking around inside while casting shadows on a wall lined with mechanic and carpentry tools behind the cashier desk, enclosed around a tempered glass panel to prevent prying thieves from obtaining the goods. The man reads a thick book with a cover tapered with tattered leather strips and a few pages stained with coffee, detailing the stock of items available in the shop. The man looks to be in his 50s with a short scruffy beard and a scruffy short hair wearing a green shirt and trousers with construction boots. He takes a puff from the cigarette in his mouth before crushing the tip on an ashtray and refrains from taking another.

"That's enough for today, now to open the shop."

The old man, Valery Sargeyev a Russian national who migrated to Japan looking for a good business opportunity after the Fall of the Soviet Economy in 90s opened a tool shop to at least sustain himself. Valery opens the door to his shop, which is a two story building that has been showing its age with cracks in the roof and walls exposing a few bricks though the floor was kept well maintained despite it lacking polish. The shop is now ready for business.

'While waiting, let's see the news.' Valery thought to himself as he went over to the TV set on the cashier counter. He pushes the power button and the tv comes to life displaying the news channel that is seen on the billboards at the business disctrict.

"Minna sama Ohayougozaimasu, kyo no tenki hosou wa owarisimashita. Saishu niyuzu dewa hajimemasu." A well dressed Japanese news anchor lady begins the morning news as she finishes reporting the weather forecasts.

"In recent news, the PM has announced that the parliament has agreed to revise the labour laws to better protect the blue collars from unfair wage policies of companies and the amendment is currently being finalized in detail to implement to the current labour laws. Though no further comments were given by the Diet or PM when the policy would be enacted, the PM said, "It is In Progress".

Additionally, the PM also mentioned that a further cooperation with NATO and U.S is necessary to ensure the security of Japan when faced with potential threats from hostile neighboring countries such as China and North Korea and to do so, the new national defense policy has been updated to allow defense contractors from allied countries to setup facilities within the country as an honest gesture of alliance between Japan and the West.

In the follow up news, Russia accused NATO of running secret bioweapons lab in joint military facilities across Japan. The Russian Defense Ministry later released photo revealing satellite images allegedly showing large concrete bunkers with joint military trucks transporting large barrels into and out of the structures and white smoke appearing from a nearby source. The Russian Army Scientific Institute of Microbiology believes that the smoke is a result of a byproduct from the metabolism of microorganisms.

President Vladimir Komarov quoted, "NATO's compliances to defense treaties has been broken yet again by their sheer arrogance to the consequences posed by such actions to the countries within this region. I warn you not to take leniently that this time, NATO has crossed the line which threatens all previous treaties that we've come to agree. In the coming years, I fear that the consequences of such actions will not just resonate within the region but the entire world as** I fear not a man wearing the devil's mask but the devil in the mask of a human**."

The Russian President later announced that he will bring up the issue during the next meeting at the UN Security Council to urge NATO to shut down the aforementioned bioweapons facilities, as a "threat to the security of the region and to Russia".

On the Other hand, The White House Foreign Secretary reacted to the statement saying, "President Komarov's speech is nothing more than false accusations and fear mongering as there are no confirmed bioweapons facilities setup by NATO within Japan and serves to only misinform the world with baseless rumors."

The next UN Security Council Meeting is reported to be the next month as leaders will gather to negotiate the terms in order to carry out appropriate actions.

That is all the news at this hour. We will be joining you soon with more latest news at the next hour. Thank you.-"

The tv news cuts off to commercials as Valery turns down the volume.

"Dammed politicians, especially that fox tongued Komarov. Once a KGB, always a KGB. Can't even stand listening to him while he self-serving himself and to his oligarchs. This is the reason I left home, where I can't be bothered with these corruptions."

Valery bickered as he now feels like taking another smoke from his pocket. As he was about to do so, he remembered his nephew needs to go to school pretty soon. He quickly shoves the ciggy back into his trouser pocket as he walked up close to the stair at the back room of the shop.

"Luka! You've get up son! You've got school! Hurry or I won't give you school fees for the next semester!"

Then a side door opens up, revealing a teenage kid dressed in tank top and short cargo pants who looks a little old for school with a nape length light blue hair draped across the side cheeks tapering just an inch above the chin while his forehead is covered with a clump of fringes. The boy gives a blank stare at his uncle with his pale pink eyes, while revealing his narrow chin and pale face. On closer look, there is a scar over his left temple which runs down close to his left ear lobe though it is old and covered with fresh skin. The boy is holding his pencil and next to an open book are a pile of book precariously stack on top of one another as it seems he seems to have made a makeshift study room on top of a workbench in his uncle's workshop. He looks at his uncle with slight agitation but mostly confusion.

The boy's name is **Luka**, he came to Japan after having a having family issues in Russia and expulsion from school concerning a fight. Despite not having much history besides being a relative, he fitted in well as if they were father and son. This time he wants to make sure that he doesn't cause anymore trouble and at least try to live normally.

"Uhhh, is it that early already?" Luka replied having not known that since getting up earlier at five in the morning to review his homework and using his mobile phone to research Japanese words online as he cannot afford a laptop. Even, so he didn't seem tired.

"Boy, have you been staying up all night studying again? You are making me a little concerned about our electricity bills, but most importantly your well being! Are you okay?"

The uncle despite looking somewhat of a miser, he is caring for his nephew knowing that he's the only family left for him and as an uncle to his younger brother's son, he feels the same responsibility of looking after him as he did with his brother back when they used to live in a small town in Leningrad Oblast, Russia.

"Sure, I'm fine uncle. I slept earlier yesterday, I've got test today so.._"

"Then, What are you doing here boy!? Finish your stuff and go to school! I've got customers to care for here!"

"Right, I'll be out in 5 minutes. Thanks."

Luka Starts packing his books and stationary into his schoolbag which he set next to the workbench. Just a few minutes after packing, he immediately went for the bathroom to use a mouthwash and use the set of school uniform he already prepared next to the washing machine. Just as he was walking out of the bathroom, he almost forgot something important. He turned to open drawer with what appears to be woman make up. He opens the box of makeup powder and applies it to his large scar, concealing it. In the next few minutes, he got out fully dressed in his uniform ready to go.

"I'm going now. Take care of the shop."

"Boy, if you could do stuff like that, why wouldn't you work a few more hours for the shop. There's always a bonus you know, for every customer you help bring."

"Uncle, I'm already helping you every evening after school. Why would you think that I had to wake up early just study? Maybe once I finish school, I'll work full time at the shop."

"Well, if that's what you promise, then I'll accept. Though I wouldn't mind if you could continue to university doing engineering or something. Except you are going to have to pay the fees yourself but you can still stay at my house."

"Thanks but no, I don't think much about university for the future. I only care about now and nothing else. There's nothing greater than now."

Then without another word, he went out of the shop, into the streets as he carefully pushed aside people and jumped onto a bus to get to the other side of town to school.

\- 20 Minutes Later -

Luka arrives at his highschool, Tokonosu Daiichi High (とこのす第一高等学校). The highschool is a prefectural government school where the name of the highschool is assigned based on the name of city, designated district and number. Luka barely could get enough funds from his uncle to go to school and the government school was a clear choice for him. Compared to private schools in Tokonosu city, like Fujimi Academy, Tokonosu Daiichi is a somewhat smaller though it makes up with the ample sized gym hall and reasonably sized classrooms, though there are no gym lockers so student have wear their gym uniforms directly underneath. The classroom that Luka is assigned to is the class 2-C since he's second year and "C" as he was average academically, though he tries his best for someone who only arrived to the country 3 years ago. Though he's second year, his **age is 18**, which is more akin to be a third year for a Japanese student. He went to middle school in Russia but he was kicked out in 6th Grade for certain incident concerning a fight with a senior year. He later went to a military academy outskirt of Moscow but once again kicked out for getting into a fight after only 1 ½ years. For that, he was took half a year off self-studying so he could enter highschool in Japan.

As he walked across the school campus, other students glanced at him and whisper among themselves,

"Hey, it's that senior year who always has that weird look on his face."

"He barely talks to anybody other than that one loser who clings around him. I guess they are both a match. ww (lol)"

"Hey look, it's that guy who always sits in the cafeteria corner during lunch break. He always eats that same bland sandwich that makes for himself. That's so drab! lol"

"Kyaa, it him! He looks so cute for a foreigner. It's a shame about his style though. If only he doesn't have a moron's look and a shabby face. ww (lol)"

"Eehh, you're into guys like that. Foreigner or not I'll not want to go near that guy, what if he has some serious problem with his sexual urges! I heard Russians like to do their girls rough."

"That's right! You are so bright Mayu-chan! If only I can be as smart as you."

"Yeah, at least I'm not dumb enough to be in C class like that guy, I'M A CLASS!"

"Ahaha! That sure is true!"

"Hey,…wait a min! That guy, he's wearing winter uniform! It's not even summer yet! Lol lol."

"And his shirt, he's not tucking it inside and his socks looks looser than loofah! What's with our school bringing in hobos lately!? Lol"

Luka has heard the same or similar things said about him every single day from almost all Japanese students who look down on him not only as a foreigner but also because his form doesn't fit in well with them. He knew this but he ignores them. Why? He doesn't care about what others tell him but what he tells himself. His hardened resolve over years of hardship told him otherwise. **Luka Georgyevich Sergeyev** fought for himself to reach this position, no one else understands except maybe his uncle.

Suddenly, someone came up behind him and grabbed his shoulder.

At that moment, a sudden rush of adrenaline went through Luka as he thought of fighting against the thing that grabbed his shoulder by jabbing the person from underneath the ribs with his elbow before he throws the person across the ground with all his weight. He quickly came to consciousness that the person is doing nothing other than grabbing him on the shoulder, besides it's not a hard grip. He turns around and sees a Japanese guy dressed as inappropriately as him though he is wearing summer uniform and has a rather spiky red hair and seems to be smiling at Luka.

**/Continue to The Next Chapter/**

* * *

**Glossary**

Saishu Nyuzu – Latest News

Hajimemasu – To begin

NATO – North Atlantic Treaty Organization


	2. Prologue Pt2 (Revised)

**Lingual Legend**

"Insert Text" – normal conversation

'Insert Text' – thoughts of a character

\- Insert Text - - Time Lapses

/ Insert Text / - To be continued

* * *

**Prologue Part 2**

"Hey buddy, It's great to see you."

"KYYAAAAA! It's Kenichi-kun! Senpai please notice me!"

"Over Here! Over Here! Kyaaaaaaaa!"

"Hey, it's Mikazuki! Yo, Mika! Want to go try out our new strategy at the court after classes?"

"Yeah man! We're gonna get them Fujimi Academy guys after what they did to us last time!"

The spiky haired guy's name is Mikazuki Kenichi a guy who is in the same class as him. Ever since Luka joined the school, Kenichi was the only person who accepted him as a peer and he's popular at school as the leader of the school's basketball team. He has lead the school's basketball team since the previous year and has won a couple of gold medals for the school from prefecture's competitions.

He isn't always properly dressed but he doesn't get complaints from school since he's a representative of the school's sports club and childhood friends with the student council leader, Matsumoto Inoue. Inoue on the other hand, sit in the 2A class and is said to be excellent with both academics and sports. She also the daughter of the school's director.

"Hi..., you seem pretty much yourself today. I wonder how you get away with this."

"Hmmm, are you sure? I always thought I dressed according to the school rules. Besides, look at yourself, Heh" Pointing at Luka's winter uniform. Luka thought it's normal to wear blazer jackets all year around, as he did when he used to live in Russia. Luka still hasn't gotten used to the new customs.

"It's already been a year, you really need to get used to how we work here buddy. Anyways, I think you've got to cheer up a bit!

Now repeat after me, "Today is a beautiful day!"

"Today..., is a beautiful day."

"No man, you've got to say it louder! So that the whole school hears you! Just say it! I'm here so no one's going to bother you!"

"Today...is...a" Luka stops short of saying anymore as he finds it silly and though he doesn't hate Kenichi, he just can't stand him sometimes.

"You know, let's just get to class. We've got tests after all,….please."

"Aww, C'mon! Do you really have to be such a killjoy? Man…, reminding me of the test? Cheeky!"

As Kenichi groans, Luka heads inside the school, towards the shoe lockers and many students can be seen scrambling to place their shoes into the lockers. Luka does that too while Kenichi heads towards his own shoe locker. Placing his shoes in the locker, he turns around to head to class. Then, he knocked by someone to the side of the locker, though it was lightweight. After getting pushed by a crowd of student rushing to class, it was a girl who bumped into him by accident. The girl stares at him embarrassed and knowing who he is, the look turned into anxiety realizing she doesn't want to anyone spreading rumors about a relationship between her and the Russian guy. She quickly takes her bag as she runs off, but in amidst of leaving she ends up dropping an envelope probably from the insecure bag after being knocked over. Before Luka could call out to her, Kenichi walks over to pat him on his shoulder, having seen what happened.

"Ohh man. It seems you've got off a good start for the second year. You've got my support all the way buddy."

Luka, not wanting any misunderstanding quickly rebutted, "That's was an accident. She dropped the letter. I'll return it after class."

"But what if she did it on purpose, heeh? What if she wants you to read it?" Kenichi chuckled as Luka's expression remains unchanged.

"That not funny man. I'm not into this sort stuff and you know that."

"Come on! Read it! Read it!"

"I said no and I'll say it again, I'm not into this."

Kenichi kept persuading him to read the envelope or rather, trying to force him to read by nudging and pulling his shoulder persistently. Luka doesn't say anything and kept walking to class. As they passed the classroom hallway, a guy in a classroom can be seen conversing with a friend concerning the computer screen showing an rpg style game.

"Youji, what am I supposed to do with this…I still can't get the player move past the 2nd level glitch. It's the engine's fault!"

"Well, have you tried changing the filenames and re-exporting the assets? Maybe that'll help."

"I tried that but I'm telling you, it's the system's fault. If we use a previous version of the engine, that will screw up the levels!"

"I guess so, anyways we don't have much time. Why not just use the old version and put abit of UI in the menu? That'll also be good too right, Hiiro?"

Kobayashi Hiiro an aspiring game programmer and designer looks on the screen as his character can't move further than a few meters due to the game glitch. He and his friend Kurotsuchi Youji are planning to use the game to promote their small dev team _"HeRocks"_ but they can't see to get it working properly this time around.

"Uggh, this is not good. I'll have to reload the old project files and start again with what we can."

"We just need to get it out there Hiiro. Nothing fancy."

"But it would be so bland like other RPG games already up there. Might as well implement a mechanic that's different from others."

"You don't need a new mechanic, that's why you have me, I write the scripts and draw the characters. That's more than unique enough."

"Hahhh…."

"Huh? What's with the noise outside." Hiiro turned to look at the hallway window as sees two students seemingly drawling on top of one another, though one of them doesn't react to the grapples.

Kenichi got Luka down on the floor as he pushed too hard trying to convince him to read the letter. Kenichi doesn't stop trying as Luka gets up and continues walking towards that the class.

Youji recognizes them as he remarks about how those two ends up making causing a commotion from time to time.

"Well, if it isn't Mr. Unpopular and Mr. Popular guy of the school. Totally not fitting picture."

"Yeah…, I don't listen to gossips very much at school. Besides, all I care for is making games."

Hiiro replied in a soft tone not sure what to make of the awkward situation.

"Heyy! Don't say that! You've got to get up and look around sometimes you know! That's how you get ideas straight from them source! You ought to be glad you've got someone like me to remind you that!"

Youji chuckles knowing how much his friend needs help from him with developing the game. Youji is a digital artist who sometimes streams himself drawing pictures online. He is also has a large network of friends that he takes advantage of to help promote their game online.

"The class is about to start soon. Let's continue after school Hiiro."

Hiiro agrees and closes his laptop as the bell rings and the teacher arrives.

In class 2C, Luka seats himself next to a window overlooking the school's garden. Sometimes Luka gazes at the garden to remove himself from the world and remember the days when his life's series of tragedies didn't occur. Luka glances out the window for a moment just before the test starts. In his vision, he remembered a face from long ago, in an open backyard which alternates to a beachside. It was a shape of a man and though he couldn't remember the face well, he knew the face was smiling to him. The lips spoke him saying something, but he couldn't make out what it meant. Then the classroom door opens, interrupting his euphoric memories. Luka prepares his pen as he sees the form teacher walk into the classroom.

"Stand!" The class rep commanded with a clear stoic voice as the class simultaneously stands up, including Luka.

"Good Morning! Sensei!" The class spoke.

The teacher look over the class as he removes a sheet of paper from his file, a form used to record student attendances.

"I'll read out the names and respond with 'yes' when you hear yours'."

One by one the teacher called out the names and each student raises their hands as he ticks off each one. Once he's satisfied, he orders them to sit.

"We're about to begin our tests soon. Please prepare your writing materials."

The class immediately sprang to action as the students took out their pen and pencils from their bags. The teacher makes the students pass on a set of papers to one another until all students have received them. The clock approaches the start time of the test and as it hits 10'o clock, the test commences.

"The test begins now. You may start writing."

The test went by smoothly for Luka as he had studied days before and revised the text earlier in the morning. Soon the test came to an end as the students returns the papers by passing on from one another until the papers were fully received by the teacher. Then the bells rang as lunch break arrives.

"The class is now over. Enjoy your lunch break. That is all."

"Stand!" the class rep shouted once again as everyone stood up.

The teacher leaves the room and afterwards, everyone lets out a sigh of relief.

"Hahhhhh! Finally! I made it!"

"I could eat a horse after all that! Let's see go what we can find in the cafeteria!"

"Yeah, Let's go!"

The students chats to one another as each of them asks what the others want or what they expect to eat. Some of the girls even thought about sharing food from their lunch boxes.

As everyone leaves the room, Luka choses to stay behind in class, as he takes out his own table cloth from a corner of his bag and pulls out a lunchbox with his homemade tuna sandwiches and an apple. Kenichi too was about to turn and leave when notices his friend staying back in class.

"Hey Luka! Come on, let's go eat with everyone!"

"No, I'm fine. I'll stay here and eat. You should go instead."

"Luka, you got go where everybody goes. People like to get along with people who do the same things they do. That's the same reason why people didn't want to talk to you. You've gotta follow the flock man, can't be the odd one out, there's no other way to make friends."

"Well, I've got you. I don't care much about anyone else. Would they even accept me after I talked to them?"

"You…hahh, Luka you know I'm always here for you. Always willing to help out you know. You're a friend to me, but I want you to have other friends besides myself."

"What about friends? What if I don't?"

Kenichi running out of reasons, remembered that Luka still has to return the letter to the girl who dropped it earlier in the morning. Kenichi grinned.

"Then, about that girl you've got to return a letter to."

Luka then perked his ears when he heard it.

"I….can return later. I'll just finish early and wait at the entrance."

"But wouldn't that be like asking for a date?"

"Well then, I'll just squeeze it into her shoe locker. The letter's thin."

"But that would be more like YOU are the one sending a letter to a girl and everyone would assume you like her."

Luka looks as if he doesn't have a choice since he hasn't much spoken to anyone besides Kenichi at school, especially not girls. There's no telling how the girl would perceive him after approaching her and talking to her without context. She might end up affirming that he's a creep.

"Tch_...fine, I'll come."

"That's more like it! Now let get you out of here!"

Kenichi ushers Luka towards the door and pushes him out forcing him to move towards where he wants to take Luka.

"Kenichi, I know where the cafeteria is. You don't have to push me."

"Oh, sorry! I got carried away. Well let's go."

Both arrived at the cafeteria. Luka brought along his own lunchbox as he didn't want to spend money at the cafeteria despite the food there being cheap. In fact, Luka didn't bring much cash on him besides a few hundred yen change.

"Okay, let's find go find something to eat at the counter."

"I'll find a seat for us. I've brought my own lunch, so.."

"If that's fine with you then that's okay. I'll go buy my lunch so just go find us a space, okay?"

"Okay."

Soon enough Luka finds a place enough for two people to fit in, sits down with his lunchbox. As eats his sandwiches, he looks around the table and the cafeteria looking for the letter girl. It didn't take long before he spots her, the long shoulder length honeycomb colored hair with a cute hairpin in shape of a cat and blue eyes, wearing a girl's uniform, shirt neatly tucked into her skirt. Her face looks so pristine with no pimple or marks as if it was taken care of expertly. She seems to be a first year student with some of the girls around her, and neither did he recognize any of the new faces too. The girls wants to get to know her better as they crowd around her talking girl's business. Luka knows what he has to do as she is probably concerned about the missing envelope by now. He finishes lunch and as he was about to walk over to her table, Kenichi returns.

"Done so early already?"

"I think I saw her, I'm going to return the letter now. See back in class."

As he was about to walk there, Kenichi stops him.

"Whoa! Luka you can't just walk up to a girl's table! What if they think you are looking to get laid!?"

"Uhh, no? I'm not trying to get laid and I'm just going to walk over there and give the letter since I brought it with me. Simple."

"No, you can't just walk over there like that. You've got to talk their language, see….."

Kenichi whispers into Luka's ear as he listens about ways to approach a girl. After listening for a while Luka seems to frown at Kenichi.

"Kenichi…..have you lost your mind?"

"No! I'm serious about this! You'll get the conversation going your way once you talk to her with the way I told you to."

"I'm not gonna to do that! Might as well be digging a grave!"

"What are you saying!? It'll work! Trust me! Beside, do you really not want to return the letter?"

Having to lower a bit of his self-dignity for his friend. Luka gives in once again.

"Fine, I'll do it. Just don't laugh."

"Go get her!"

Luka walks up to the girl's table and sees the girls chatting about fashion and guys and the new ice cream store. The girl can be seen talking to her friends and nodding, smiling and laughing when they all are.

Luka tries to be as calm as possible and to remember his lines, but he forgets all of them. As he turns around to look back at Kenichi. Kenichi is talking to his basketball teammates, asking him to come join them after classes and Kenichi have no choice but to talk to them instead. Luka realizes that he better should think of something quick before he loses his chance to return the letter. Luka looks towards the girl and fastens himself as he attempts to start a conversation.

"Uhm, Hello."

The girls stop talking and turns to look at him as if expecting some white guy looking for a date with one of them or something naughtier. The surrounding tables stops to look at them, curious what the Russian has to say.

"I want you to know..."

Girls look confused but kept listening. However, Luka forgets everything and turns in the letter envelope in his hand as he shoves it in front of the girl.

"Here you dropped this earlier in the morning. I just want to give it back….so take it."

Everyone in at the school's lunch area looked in surprise as Luka, the most unpopular guy of the school gives a love letter to a girl in a bold manner, or at least they assume.

"Uhm….., Are you asking me out?"

The girl looks surprised yet at the same time looks embarrassed as she thought that someone asking her out for a date seems too far-fetched. Luka has no such intentions as he lay the letter in her hand.

"Uhmmm….are you_"

"Have a nice day."

Luka walks off as he exits the lunch cafeteria.

People around the cafeteria gasps in awe even louder.

"Hey Hotori-chan. Why not give this guy a chance? He doesn't seem to have any ulterior motives. Looks like he really wants it."

"Yeah why not, just imagine getting a date with a white guy. Ahh! I'm so so jealous of you now, Hotori-chan!"

"Do it, Hotori! We'll all hear you out later about what happens! It will be quite a story to share on twitter! Help me get more followers!"

Her friends cheer on as the expectations grew bigger for the girl. Hotori gives into the pressure as she would contact the guy later in the day.

Though it didn't go as planned. Luka was glad that it worked out at least and though his inner voice is saying otherwise, the deed has already been done.

'Now you've done it. No telling what hell's gonna break loose next?'

Walking back to class, Luka looks at Kenichi giving him a thumbs up while grinning.

"You've done alright!" The his lips pronounced.

Luka let's out a sigh as the bell rings, signalling the end of the lunch break.

In an opposite corner, a group of boys can be seen with silhouette cast over their faces by curtain shades.

"Look like we've got another idiot to teach a lesson…"

* * *

\- 6 hours later -

The sun sets to a reddish brown color as the school finishes its classes and the students makes a chatter on the campus main road as they return to their homes, talking about their days homework, their plans when they get home and of course, the incident at the cafeteria with the Russian student. Yet still even at this hour, a significant number of students stayed behind as they have club activities and Student Council meetings.

Kenichi is the school's basketball team leader so he had to stay behind to see his juniors. In fact, he promised his teammates that he would practice with them.

In the Student Council, the president is Matsumoto Inoue who oversees the event and activities at school, and supervises the disciplinary committee which involves dealing with trouble makers at school.

Inoue sits in the council room with her subordinates as they review their work for the week. After the reviews concerning clubs and funding, their meeting was adjourned.

"That is all for today. You may all head home now."

"Thank you for the hard work, Matsumoto-san."

"It's fine, I'm always up for the tasks. Now get back home safely everyone."

Her subordinates left, one after another and she too was about to leave, the head of the disciplinary committee, Yoshijima Daichi stood behind, not leaving. He turns towards Inoue to speak to her regarding an incident from an earlier week.

"Matsumoto-san. I've got something to tell you."

"Inoue is fine but go ahead."

Yoshijima's face tenses up as he begins.

"About the incident last week with Furukawa and his gang."

Once Matsumoto heard it, her face turns serious.

"Hmmm, what about them? Was the boy okay?"

"The boy that Furukawa beat up is currently in a coma at the general hospital. His mother seems to be grieving. Furukawa was at least half-decent to give a handsome cheque to lifetime medical treatment. When I asked him for the reason, he replied that he didn't like how the boy approached one of his girls. Even though it was just him asking to borrow her textbook."

Inoue thinks of the case, knowing Furukawa's involved, not even her father the Director could do anything about it because Furukawa's father is an influential member of the local prefecture government and has ties to just about everywhere, including the prefecture's board of education. Any wrong moves and the school might be forced to shut down and her father losing his position at the Education board.

"It is very unfortunate about the boy as we cannot do anything about it much less report as not to receive the wrath of the city's board of chair committee. The least we can do now is to prevent another incident like this by keeping an eye out and informally warning boys not to approach certain girls at school."

Yoshijima then mentions an incident today that he relates to the current case.

"About today, I fear that something similar is about to happen sooner or later from what I heard from students about the cafeteria incident."

"What's happened? Give me details."

Yosujima then gave the story in details.

"The Russian kid, who joined last year ended up asking for a date from one of the freshman years who happens to be one of Furukawa's new persons of interest."

Inoue, right then realizes who that is, as Luka is a close friend of Kenichi who in turn is also her childhood friend. She bites her lips.

"If Furukawa was so eager to harm someone just for borrowing a book. There's no telling what or when he will confront the guy who asked for a date. We've got to keep our eyes sharp lest we end up running the school reputation. Having my father lose his school is bad but having much less students come to school is just as bad!"

"Understood. I will tell my subordinates to keep a look out for the Russian guy and Furukawa mentions about him."

"Good and be careful."

"Yes."

The two finishes their conversation just the moment when two student barged into he committee room.

"Hey you two, you are not allowed come in here. This is restricted to the council members only."

Yoshijima scolds them, but it seems the student wanted to badly tell them something.

"We saw Furukawa and his gang up at the roof level! He and his buddies looked like they were beating up someone. We have a hunch that something bad is happening."

Inoue becomes alarmed and so did Yojima's. They know what's about to happen soon unless they stop it.

"We've got to head to the roof now!"

* * *

\- Rooftop Balcony, Tokonosu Daiichi High, 10 mins earlier -

Luka waits at the school's rooftop. Just after the classes, he was informed by a classmate that the girl from earlier wants to see him after school at the rooftop. Luka accepted the invitation so he can at least clear up things with her. Not knowing whether she would arrive or not, he waited. Then, he heard footsteps before seeing a silhouette, ….no there were multiple footsteps of at least four individuals, and they sound too heavy for the girl who only managed to make a soft nudge when she bumped into him. Multiple silhouettes appeared as Luka instinctively goes into a fighting stance.

"Looking for fight now, huh?"

"You are looking for trouble aren't you!"

"We're gonna teach you a lesson not to mess with boss's girl!"

**/ Continue To The Next Chapter / **


	3. Prologue Pt3 (Revised)

**Lingual Legend**

"Insert Text" – conversational text

"Insert Text" – character's thoughts

*Insert Text* – sound effects

\- Insert Text - – Time Intervals

/ Insert Text / – To be continued

* * *

**Prologue Part 3**

\- The main road outside of school, 5 mins ago -

On a street leading to the school's main road, Kobayashi Hiiro, the computer whiz who is part of a local game developer team walks home together with his partner, Youji, discussing matters about their game's release version.

"I told you, it's fine if we leave the current version as to what it is. Just relax, your part has been done. Now, it's my turn to go around asking people who can help promote our game."

"B-But still, it's a shame despite all the new mechanics I've tried to implement. It would've been something much more that what we have now."

"As I said before, Hiiro. This is the game which will take us to the big game. You can think about fixing the game, after we have released our current version."

Hiiro looks at Youji and sees that he's brimming with confidence as he ever was. Hiiro had always known his character from the beginning of their partnership. From the attitude to especially the way how he works, a mass of friends with whom he frequently contacts with online. Hiiro himself has his group of friends, but they are usually not into doing work or any form serious tasks together. Basically Hiiro has only casual types of friends, while Youji has friends who think about working together on businesses instead of just playing games. For that reason, Hiiro feels helpless when it comes to social networking as he had always relied on Youji to find the right people.

"You know to be honest, I'm not really good at dealing with people unlike you. If I only had, I would've gone a lot further….Sorry, if I had been relying on you too much."

Youji, hearing such a whimsical apology coming from Hiiro, chuckles.

"Heh"

"What's so funny?"

"Well…, seeing how that's coming from you, I can't help but feel that I could say the same thing to you. I mean, I'm not good at technical stuff and I'm not great either at designing levels in a game. Though I know how to talk around people, it isn't always sincere as those types usually only care about money more than the actual value of work. That's why, don't apologize because you've got me and I've got you. I got into this project because my buddy showed that he really cares about his work. What can't be better than that?"

"I see. Well okay, it's great to know that I'm being useful in the work. Thanks man."

"You too, buddy."

As they continued down the path to return home, each thought to themselves about the future of their project and especially, the future of their partnership. Hiiro has always wanted to join a big games company and become famous like, Shouyama Kouji the developer of Mansion Evil. On the other hand, Youji wanted to become a painter and maybe one day, have his works displayed at the Vienna Art Exhibitions but after meeting Hiiro, he thought about settling for a job at a local animation or to work with Hiiro at a professional scale making games. Cutting short of his daydream, right then, Youji thought of asking a very important question. Youji had actually contacted his associate and he agreed to show the version of the game to the person by tonight as the friend is actually busy for the next following weeks. Right now, Youji needs to make sure that the game file is on Hiiro since he was the last person to touch it.

"Say, do you have the game's project file on your hard drive?"

"Hmm, I actually saved the game on the portable HDD. It's currently not on my computer."

"Then do you have the HDD?"

"Wait…"

Hiiro sets his bag down and rummages through his cluttered backpack but he finds nothing that felt like a portable HDD. Hiiro face became small as he looked up at Youji.

"Uhm…, I think I left it back at the computer station in the IT club room."

Youji looked panicked as he heard it. Then, he realizes that the school's inner gate leading to the indoor club rooms will close soon, leaving only the gym hall and the baseball field open for a few more hours.

"Quick! Let's go back before they lock the doors."

The two hurried back to the school gates and after about 5 minutes, feeling exhausted, they looked somewhat relived that at least gates are still open.

"Why…the heck did we had to rush back here? Look! It's still_Heeeghh Heegeh…Open!"

"WELL, IF, We didn't get back here! WHO KNOWS?! Maybe the gate guard would've have closed it anyways!"

"Let's just get inside…..and retrieve that Hard Drive."

As they walked towards the main building, they accidentally spotted several people up on the roof while they were looking up at the 3rd floor where the IT room is. They recognized the scarf that one of them is wearing, and that belongs by the most popular guy at school, Furukawa Masato. It was a fox fur scarf that is prohibited to wear at school but not for Furukawa. In front of him, there's another student, he has a light blue hair that couldn't be mistaken for anyone else's, that was definitely the "creepy Russian guy".

"Hey Hiiro, I think I sense something very wrong here."

"Yeah, me too. I may not know much gossip but even I've heard about the occasional incident where guy who crosses paths with Furukawa ends up in the hospital, one way or another. We've got to do something."

"Change of plans. We need to head for the Student Council Room. Right now."

The two rushed for the main building as they battled against time to prevent the worst case scenario.

* * *

\- School Rooftop, 10 Minutes Ago -

"ARRRGH!"

"Keuugh!"

"Earrrrgh!"

*Dud**Smack**Dud**Smack**Dud**Dud***Splat*

Four school boys surrounded Luka as they punched and kicked him all over, a part of his face is badly bruised, turning black, stomach swollen from the kicks, elbows bruised. Even so, Luka still manages to get up without retaliating and doesn't seem to be keen on fighting. In truth however, he was considering all this time about smashing one of the guys face till it caves in, knocking another unconscious by punching through his diaphragm, breaking another's arm through counter and throwing the last one off the roof, all while he had a chance but he wouldn't because that would mean betraying whatever trust is left in him by his only friend and uncle. He could even get deported back to Russia where there's no future left for him. He stood back up, refusing to back down, while a group of thugs continues to beat him up.

"You're still not giving up punk?"

One of the boys spoke, assumingly the leader.

"Why won't you go back to whatever shithole country you came from, Scum! Did You really think you can go around our school hitting on girls!"

The thug leader punches hits him straight across the face. Luka almost fell on his back but he manages to maintain his balance. In a normal situation, Luka knew how to fight as in that moment he could've pivoted the same force to be transferred to his fist which would punch right at the thug's abdomen which is left wide open and vulnerable to attacks. However, in this case he only used his balance to fall one knee on the ground. Then a kick struck his stomach by another thug, causing Luka to fall onto the surface of the concrete. Then, a foot came resting on top of his right cheek as it pushed him against the concrete harder.

"What's the matter? Running out of wind, Heh?"

The thug beside the leader kicks him again in the stomach. This time it hits his chest, causing his lungs to become swollen and spurt blood from his mouth.

"Hauuugh_!"

Luka looks like he's about give in as the thugs smile wickedly at him.

"You know, I honestly don't hate guys like you. Good at sports, good at English, and even getting hooked up with girls. But you know…"

The thug leader, grins wide.

"There's a limit to everything and your indecent vulgarities. Treating schoolgirls like call girls, surely we can't accept such behaviours around here, can we~?"

He grins even wider as he pushes his feet down on Luka harder than before.

"So…..why won't you just DISSAPPEAR?! Why do people like you exist in my school?! WHY!?"

The thug was infuriated of the fact that people like Luka came to his country and hitting on girls wherever they are, and often the girls would accept their invitations out of curiosity or novelty. The thug sees that in Luka because he asked out one of the girls he's interested in, the same envelope girl he met earlier.

Then, Luka spoke with voice that is dampened with blood, yet firm and unwavering.

"I was just returning a letter. There was no relationship between me and her." *Cough* *Cough*

A few droplets of blood came out of his mouth as he spoke. The thug leader doesn't look convinced and continues to press his feet on Luka's face.

"Huh? What's that got to do with this?! You just want to hit on her right? So why won't you just give up? Huh? Hey!"

The thug lifts up his feet before kicking at Luka's face again. Luka took another hit as feet came down but he smiled softly.

"So in your view, you "think" I'm hitting on one of your girls and that guys like me are going around school and asking out girls, that you haven't even spoke to?"

"Huh?! What are you saying? You're making no sense! I'm the most popular guy of the School! I'm a son of an influential politician who is part of the prefectural government! I can get what I want, I'm handsome, I'm rich and most of all I'm got the charisma you will never obtain in your pathetic life!

"Then that means…., you haven't actually talked to her, huh? Yet you assume that a girl would love you by default because you have all the good points…aren't you just sad little rich boy. Or better yet a moron with existential problems. Did you had a gender transplant?"

"SHUT UP!" The thug leader, now consumed with rage, kicks Luka in the face again and again, without stopping.

"Oi…, Boss. We think we should stop here. If this goes any further, I think we would be going to jail for real, that even your dad might not be able to get us out."

"What are you saying?! You think a mere Gaijin like him would be worth even a quarter of a Japanese?! You think that'll be enough to get us charged for killing him?! I'll show you!"

Setting his foot off Luka. The thug leader walks to the side of an air conditioning unit and picks up a wrench left by a repairman. He grips onto the wrench tightly as he walks back to where Luka was, who's trying to sit upright as the thug leader stares right at him with malice.

"I'll show you! I hope you regret that you've crossed eyes with me! I hope you're sorry that you even existed at all!"

The thug leader stops right in front of Luka as he raises his wrench high. Luka just smiles at him softly as he doesn't care if he dies right then. Just as the thug positions his wrench to strike at Luka's head, the door to the rooftop slams open and through the door appears Luka's only friend, Kenichi. Kenichi appears exhausted just as much as he is angry at the Thugs for what they were doing to his friend.

"Furukawa! What do you think you're doing?! Stop this and Get away from him!"

The Thug Leader, Furukawa Masato son of local politician Furukawa Hisashi looks at Kenichi with indifference, consumed by rage.

"What do you want Kenichi? You should stay out of this! He's mine!"

"I'll explain! I'm the one who made him ask her out! This is not his fault!"

Luka's eyes opened wide as he saw his friend trying to convince Furukawa not to kill him. He didn't expect this, in fact, he didn't even want Kenichi to be here. This is none of his business yet he still came when his friend was in danger.

"Kenichi…., why did you come? Please…, stay out of this. I don't want you to get hurt. Leave me alone. Forget about me and go home."

Kenichi didn't even listen to Luka as he continues to persuade Furukawa.

"He's innocent! The only reason he asked her to come to the roof is to return the girl her the letter that she dropped! I was the one who pushed him to talk to her like that at the cafeteria."

"Like I said…., STAY OUT OF THIS! I don't care if it's you who helped him out. I just want to kill this guy for daring insulting me!"

"You out of your mind Furukawa!? You know that's murder right?"

"Yeah! So what?! I'll just have my dad clean this up and everything will be back to how it is, without this bastard!"

Furukawa looks back at Luka who is now in an exhausted and weak state. He still has that smirk on his face that the longer he looks at Luka, the more enraged he becomes.

"Enough! I'll kill him right here, right now! DIE!"

Furukawa swings the wrench over Luka as Kenichi runs over to stop him. He was stopped by one of the henchmen as he wrestled to reach Luka. Luka closes his eyes, knowing that soon everything will be over. He doesn't even hear Kenichi screaming, he doesn't even care.

"PLEASE STOP!"

A scream rang out of the evening as the sun was setting, giving the red blood aura which radiates off the trees and the buildings, casting long shadows. The source of the scream was high pitched as if from a girl. It came from the doorway to the lower floor as a silhouette casts the shape of a highschool girl. The silhouette slowly moves out to the opening on the roof as the sunset it reveals the face of the girl who owned the envelope. Her faced was tense as if on the verge of tears as she witnesses the scene in front of her.

"Please stop fighting, no has to get hurt! I'm the one you want right?! I heard everything you said earlier! You won't have to kill him if I go out with you, right?!"

Furukawa Masato looks at the girl and his eyes open wide.

"Hotori-chan! Oh, just wait right there! I really, really can't wait to try you out! Oh yeah! Right after I kill this guy, I'm going to enjoy you thoroughly."

Furukawa licked his lips with a deranged look and opens his lips in a wide grin. The girl who was nervous earlier, now looks clearly frightened as she senses a look of evil emanating from Furukawa's face. Furukawa points his finger at the girl.

"Hold her down boys, make sure she doesn't go anywhere."

Furukawa's henchmen walks up behind her and restrains her hands to her back and makes her kneel as she struggles before the horror that's about to unfold.

Kenichi knowing how dire the situation has turned to, slowly runs out chances for negotiations as he realizes how this is turning against him.

"Hey you can't do this! Furukawa, you really have gone nuts! Not only you are attempting murder but also rape!"

"Shut him up."

"Urgh!"

The thug next to Kenichi hits him square across the face and blood comes oozing out of his nose. Kenichi falls down unconscious.

"Stop…this! Furu_kawa..!"

Luka seeing his friend beaten down, something lit inside of him, something he hasn't felt in a long time leaving his motherland. He gets flashbacks of the shouts and screaming as he got beaten up by a group of thugs similar to Furukawa's back in middle school. There was also a girl wearing only underwear next to them crying helplessly. He remember feeling helpless, he remember the rage that filled inside of him when he was just a weak kid. Then, it goes all black. Is he dead? No…., he can still feel his heartbeat but right then he remembers a familiar face, the same face he had seen so many times. The lips spoke to him once again, but this time he heard it, he understood it.

"Don't run away…There is nothing to be ashamed of, to protect what is dear to one's heart."

At that moment, Luka's eyes threw wide open as he feels a surge of adrenaline rushing through him. His arms felt as if they could move faster now. He doesn't know how but he knows what to do with it. As if he were lightning, Luka springs up and punches the unsuspecting henchman in the jaw with all of his momentum and as he fell, Luka pull his arms and uses his right knee to bring the guy's face back and slams it again harder in the face this time. The henchman falls down hard and can be heard barely breathing. Furukawa and his thugs were caught by surprise and before they could react any further, Luka dashed for the leader as the other henchmen runs straight, forgetting about the girl and Kenichi to protect their leader. Furukawa quickly swings his wrench in reaction, and hits nothing but the air. Luka stopped short of Furukawa striking distance by only an inch as he then grapples Furukawa's extended arm and locks the shoulder before gripping his hands, fingers locked into the Furukawa's neck as he puts him in a strangling position. Luka makes sure that he is symmetrically aligned to Furukawa's back so as not to get countered. He then twists Furukawa's wrists sharply as he yanks off the wrench while keeping the arm locked, straining the muscles inside. The henchmen finally reaches attack distance and when one of them attempted to kick at Luka in the face. Luka quickly uses Furukawa as shield by moving his head and hips behind the restrained Furukawa. The attacker stops right then to avoid hitting his leader and Luka uses the opportunity to kick the hesitant attacker right in the center point at his pelvis which throws Furukawa onto the other approaching attacker as they fall down. He simultaneously repositions himself around the side of the guy who fell down while still facing Furukawa and slams his other foot making contact with the guts. He then quickly got down, flipped the body over and started kneeing the guy in the guts relentlessly, each strike carefully aimed and with equal power. This caused the guy to fall unconscious too as the pressure built up inside the stomach compromises his trachea as the lungs are compressed to the maximum. The other attackers including Furukawa and his other remaining henchmen got back up and rushed to kick Luka's ass.

This time, Luka employs a different set of moves. When the Furukawa comes first to strike him with the retrieved wrench, instead of avoiding it, Luka chases after the wrench deflecting it with the back of his palm and wraps his hands around it, not locking it with his arm this time. Instead, he swings his own body around with it, confusing Furukawa arm's reach and the grip on the wrench as Luka easily loosens the wrench, rotates it to the opposite direction of the attack and was thrown off the pivot once the elbow has no more reach. This time he flings the wrench to the other side of the roof, out of reach. Furukawa then throws a punch at him but misses as Luka throws him off balance via a low kick. As Furukawa stumbles, he shoves him to the ground and presses on his shoulders with his foot causing excruciating pain.

The other attacker approaches in for the strike but Luka moves away and steers his torso around the attacker as he dodged every single punch to the face. Once, the thug leader was tired from the shoulder lock, Luka switches his foot and performs a low kick just above Furukawa's ribs hitting the stem of the windpipe causing the gang leader to fall flat on the ground with chest pain, before moving away to avoid the next punch by the henchman. Without a pause, he quickly shoves his hands into the face of the attacker's to reel back by instinct and causing his arms to stretch out before Luka suddenly relaxes for a split second, relaxing his own arms, standing straight with his foot symmetrically aligned on the ground. The next moment he releases hammer fisted blows with all his energy to the head and the torso as if he were hitting a large drum. The thug falls down from the shockwaves produced by the hammered strike and Luka then jumps on top of him and repeatedly punches him in the face like a pestle driving straight into the motor while the other hand held him down his chest.

"LUKA! STOP! THAT'S ENOUGH!"

"STOP! PLEASE! WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS!? NO ONE HAS TO GET HURT! THEY'VE ALREADY GIVEN UP!"

Kenichi and the girl looked on in horror and surprise as they saw Luka beating the living hell out of Furukawa's gang. Once Luka, heard their voice he immediately stopped and looks at his hand to realize that it's covered with blood. This made him realize about what he had done. He not only did something that's forbidden in the country and the school but he even did it in front of his only friend. Though Luka had avoided hitting the vital organs so far, it still left the thugs with a few broken bones and inflammations. Who going to pay for their medical fees? Luka might as well get deported and his poor uncle having to deal with their parents and the authorities. It was then, Luka Sergeyev felt something else other than rage that he hasn't felt in a long time, Fear. The fear that your own actions has led to sufferings of those close to you even if you try to protect them. The fear that no one will ask for you again even if they were in danger as they would rather die.

"I…, I'm sorry. You're right…..I will stop now."

Luka gets up and walks towards the gang leader, Furukawa Masato who is still lying face down on the ground. Furukawa shrieks and wets his pants as Luka got close. Just a few minutes ago, Furukawa saw the Russian almost in his dying state, but now he has beaten up him and his henchmen despite looking as if he about to give away himself. Furukawa thought of what his real strength would have been if he started fighting when they were intimidating him. Just the thought of it numbs his bones and makes him panicked.

"W-What do you want?! Please! I don't want to die! You can have the girl and those guys, just please let me live."

Furukawa begged pathetically, looking for a way out. Intending to just save himself but instead, what came next was a surprise. Luka lays prone in a traditional Japanese bow which is used to make oneself the most humble before their superiors and people they wish to ask for forgiveness. The Dogeza bow, where the person will sit on all fours and lay their hands flat as if they worship a person.

"I'm terribly sorry, Furukawa-san. Please accept my most humble apologies for I most truly regret my actions. I will not bother you anymore nor will I lay a finger on your woman. Please accept my humble apology."

Furukawa looks at Luka, completely shocked, as the one who tried to beat living crap out of him earlier is apologizing. Furukawa readjusts his orientation and slowly gets up.

"Okay. I get it, you don't have to say anymore. I'm just going to keep the peace between you and me. To be honest, I don't really care about the girl, you can have her. She just caught my interests, but I didn't intent to do anymore than try asking her for a date. I'll also keep what happened today as a secret as I don't want to embarrass myself in front of my dad."

Furukawa let's out a faint laugh but then another voiced joined the roof from the doorway. It sounds feminine but compared to the letter girl, it was stoic and stern.

"It better be, since I got everything taped on the school's security camera. I'm going keep the record tape in a secured safe while I replaced it with the tape from a secondary recorder."

"Inoue! Yo, how's it going?!"

"Quiet Ken-chi! I'm only doing this because you were involved! It's not like I care about your new Russian friend! Besides I owe Ms. Mikazuki for helping me buy a new set of dresses."

"Sure, anytime."

Inoue was informed earlier by two boys who came to warn them of the trouble at the rooftop. Recognizing this as an immediate threat, Inoue and Yoshijima rushed to the roof followed later by the two boys who themselves rushed to retrieve their precious HDD from the IT club room before heading up so they too could see what's going on.

Yoshijima gives an equally stern look and stand up before them, imposing the aura as if that on an oldest brother.

"HEY! CEASE AT THIS INSTANCE!"

He shouted from the top of his lungs that it is so loud the entire campus could hear them from the ground level. Even Luka was a bit taken back by the intensity of the roar.

"I HEREBY GRANT YOU THE RIGHT TO REMAIN SILENT, UNLESS YOU WISH TO BE EXPUNGED FROM THIS VERY SCHOOL GROUND!"

Very soon, everyone aside from Inoue was holding up their hands by reaction.

Behind Inoue, two boys came running upstairs to see what's going on and stood next to each other as peeked out to see the chaos before them. It was, Hiiro and Youji.

"Wow, what the hell happened here? We only came back a few minutes late after seeing that Russian dude getting beaten up by Furukawa and calling the council leader about the death match. It's like someone flipped tables."

"This almost reminds me of "_Berserker"_ where the big guy with a huge sword went bananas and beat the living crap out the village bandits in the first episode."

"True, I haven't even finished the whole series yet but damn it was great."

Hiiro looks at Luka and sees something else everyone didn't consider about. From his perspective the carnage seems to center around Luka as a blood soaked demon with bodies of people lying around him onset by the blood red sunset casting an ominous shadow over his face with his eyes dead cold, the same look that hasn't changed since Hiiro saw him earlier in the morning.

"Is he actually…., a demon? Is that….even human anymore?"

"Huh? What were you saying?"

"Uhh! Nothing! Again I was just saying this looks like Berserker. I wonder if we can make a game like this next?"

"What?! Hiiro….., you really surprise me sometimes. I know I told you about getting ideas for games but you know, this right here is just going a little too far."

As the two chat, Inoue walks up to Kenichi, giving him a disappointed look.

"Hahhh…, every time there a problem you show up! How many time must I cover your butt?! Anyways fix your uniform! You don't look like you belong to Tokonosu Daiichi! Rather than helping you today. I might as well get you filed for expulsion."

"Ehhh, you sure are scary sometimes Inoue."

"Shut up and just get out of here."

"Not while my friend is still here."

"Oh right! You two, stay right there, I have something to tell you two."

Inoue calls out to Luka and Furukawa as they are approached by the student council leader. She gets close to them looking serious this time compared to how she looked at Kenichi.

"You two, I'm only going to give on one warning and this is your last chance. Don't you ever dare start fights again, not on my father's school grounds and not in the public.

If the city hears about two brawling kids are students of this school, the board might start an investigation and threaten to shut the school down. Everybody here is going suffer because of you two. I'm only letting it go this time because Mikazuki-san is my friend. Understood?"

"Yes ma'am!" Both replied, as they came to mutual terms of agreement. Inoue will pretend this never happened and in return Luka and Furukawa will stop making incidents in and outside of school.

Afterwards, the commotion died down as everyone prepared to leave. The Furukawa gang left first, as he motioned his henchmen to get up so they can go home. The boys got up one after another, one of them needed support so the other guys needed to lend him a shoulder. Slowly they all left as they descended the stairs.

This was followed by Kenichi, Yoshijima and the game dev boy, and finally Inoue. The only ones left on the roof were Luka and the letter girl. The roof became quite place with everyone gone as Luka remembers the incident at the cafeteria. Before he could begin, she began first.

"I'm sorry you had to experience that. I've_"

She paused herself before she continued.

"I didn't expect things to turn out this way! Not only did I caused you trouble, I almost got you killed! For that I'm very sorry. Please forgive me!"

It turned out, she was actually hiding behind an opposite wall after she saw Furukawa and his gang walking up to the third floor while hesitating to go to the roof as she felt something bad was about to happen. She tailed them from behind and saw what they said and did to him. Kenichi didn't saw her either as he just rushed up to the roof after he too saw what was happening from below.

Luka listens to every detail from her point of view. After affirming everything, he gets back to his point.

"Well, don't mention it, it was hard trying to hold in the pain but, I'm used to it. I used to get into fights back in middle school years in Russia! But of course, in self-defense."

"Is that so…, I didn't knew school in Russia were that violent."

"No, the fights happen outside of school. We would have been suspended long before the first fists land on the face. But in this case, it was an opposite turn of events."

"Oh, I see." The girl looks much more reluctant to talk now as she doesn't know what else to say. Luka quickly gets back to the point.

"Earlier this morning, at the lunch area, I was just returning the letter you dropped. It's nothing to do with me asking for a date."

"If I had known better I would have explained to you much more clearly during the lunch break."

Tears start to drip down from her cheeks.

"Was it that bad? Sorry, maybe I'll write down the exact same copy of the letter and give you a new one tomorrow."

"N-no, I'm just glad that I have the letter now. Besides, you wouldn't happen to know French, would you?"

"Uhh…."

Confused as to why the letter would be French, Luka paused for a moment closing his eyes, thought carefully about it. It's true that there are other foreign nationalities Japan and some of them have duel citizenships, those who are born in Japan and lived abroad only to come back to study. Peering his eyes open to examine the girl's face, Luka sees that despite her looks being very Japanese, there are some peculiarities in her height, eyes and eyebrows that appears to be European. But that could have been plastic surgery! He heard of Asian girls going to plastic surgeons in Asia to augment their physical features and what if she's just an ordinary Japanese who did so? This could only mean one thing.

"Do you…have a boyfriend in France?"

The girl's cheeks turned red as soon as he mentioned it.

"Wha-Wh-What do you mean boyfriend?! That's my father! He writes letters to me often from his hospital room in Paris!"

Hearing those words, Luka felt defeated. He felt ashamed for himself as he realized his mistake.

"I'm sorry, I thought that was a love letter as I learnt from online Japanese Language sites that in Japan, it is customary for Japanese people to send love letters before they start dating as an invitation."

"Where did you hear such silly things!? There's no one sending physical letters these days! They would be using twitter!"

'Well, she's right. I guess I shouldn't have been too trusting of online forums. After all, anyone on the internet can say what they want without consequences.'

"But then….why do you receive physical letters from your dad? He could've used a computer from the hospital instead."

"W-well, me and my dad have a special connection through letters. Afterall, a physical letter is more honest than an e-mail since you can't cross out words easily in a letter as you could in an email!"

"Then…, he could've just taken a new sheet of paper and started writing all over again."

"Ugguuuh!"

The girl looked embarrassed as evidenced by her smooth cheeks turning red as she shakes her head around.

"You are annoying me! Bête, bête, bête, bête!"

"uhm, okay. Don't know what you meant by _'бете'_, but I hope you enjoy your letter. Have a good evening."

As Luka turns around, the girl became hesitant for moment before she says something.

"W-Wait!"

The girl calls out Luka as he stops, turning around to see what else this tactless girl has to say. She walks up to him.

"Yes?"

"We haven't introduced ourselves yet! Give me your name!"

'Pfft_' The girl doesn't realize how useless this is as she doesn't need to know him, especially after she ran away earlier morning after she saw him. She must've known that being around someone like him is ill-advised by her friends as people might lump her together with the most unpopular guy at school. Letting someone give their names is the first step of getting a contact within an organization and people who have names of others are a step ahead than those who don't know, this is where you can begin extracting information without torture. To say the least, that was what someone taught him a long time ago but seeing how she wants to know badly, since he's the one who confronted Furukawa and this being just an innocent conversation. Luka looks at her and sighs for moment before looking straight at her again.

"The name's Luka Georgyevich Sergeyev. It is nice meeting you on this lovely day, little miss."

Luka introduced himself sarcastically as the girl gives her name in return.

"My name is Kiriyama Noel. But my friends call me Hotori since it's my Japanese name. I hope I get to meet you more often, Luka-san."

"Yeah. If you could bear hanging around me."

Having nothing else left to say, Luka turns around to leave.

"Wait! I'm not finished here!"

"What is it? Going to tell me more about your dad?"

"N-no! That's not it! I just want to thank you for saving me back there! Although if you wish to know more about him I won't mind."

"No, save it. It's better to keep things to yourself. That was just sarcasm."

Luka couldn't comprehend why she's eager to share information about herself if she doesn't gain anything. Does she do this to her friends every time they mention something about her? It sounds like she needs a doctor.

"And what about it? You've already told me thanks before. Why again?"

"W-well, I've heard how my friends described you. They think you are a guy who looks like a gangster with a half-ass make up used to hide a scar on his left cheek."

So all this time, everyone spotted the scar on his face even though Luka tries his best to cover with makeup. Luka thought he had perfected his disguise after about a year trying on the makeup. No wonder why they avoided him. He thought they just avoided him because he looks poor and nonetheless, a white foreigner that sticks out like a sore thumb in the largely homogenous Japanese school.

"Oh…., that's great, thank you for mentioning it. Now I'll try even harder to put more make up on my scar."

"Wait! I'm still not finished here! Do you seriously care so much about going home right now?"

'Of Course I do, why do you think the school empty at this hour? Everyone has left! We are probably the only two remaining in this school right now! Are you that airheaded?! Now that you mention about going home. I've got a work shift tonight, Uncle Valery told me that the old man is coming to visit the shop tonight.'

"Alright, hurry up. Before the gates close and I get stuck with you all night."

"Uggh, you are just so busy aren't you? Well fine, the point is, I don't think you are such a bad guy since you beat up that other guy, who turn out to be a real bad guy. I think you are a good person and I felt it by the way you look and chose to return the letter to me personally even though you would've just snuck it in my shoe box after school."

'Well, that was meat headed Kenichi's idea. You can blame him for that.'

"And what you said to me during the lunch break at cafeteria. I can't say that I don't find it cliché but the way you said, "My Sweet Sugar" it kind of bothers me still."

"Uhm, you can forget about it. I was only doing that so I can return the letter to you."

"I know! But still it sounds like you're….."

Luka not wanting to create even more misunderstanding was about to end the conversation and leave when Hotori interrupted.

"Okay, that's good enough for today. Maybe you can_"

"That you were going to take me to a bar and drug me before you carry my unconscious body to the _"adults-business"_ hotel and try out all kinds of indecent things! But I couldn't refuse since my friends were forcing me to meet you! My dad told me that one of his war buddies used the word 'Sweet Sugar' to get a woman at a bar and it worked!"

'….WTF'

'Why?! Why YOU! Why you STUPID LITTLE SHEEP! What makes you think I'm that sort of person?! Did you watched too much crime thriller?! What kind of girl are you?! And Besides what kind of dad writes about that stuff to his daughter?! I can't even come to understand how your mother came to like such a man! The only reason I said Sweet Sugar is because I remembered reading a line like that from my dad's love novel. Enough!'

"Okay, I'm leaving. Bye_"

"But I think, the word "Sweet Sugar" means something more, uhh…sincere when you said it. And it really made me feel like there's another meaning to it."

"Great, now I'm 10 minutes late on my schedule thanks to you."

"Can you give me your phone number?"

"Why?"

"Because we can keep in contact that way! It would be great if we can send each other messages about a lot of things like, new events, shops, big festivals..."

'Are you serious? Like hell, I'm giving you my phone number. The only reason I kept a smartphone is because I needed to study since I couldn't afford a laptop and to keep contacts with customers who orders custom repairs. I never used it like you do.'

"No. Can we not do this?"

"Well fine! If that's so then I'll just give you my phone number, twitter and email. Here!"

Noel draws out a neat business card from her purse as she hands it to Luka with a single hand while facing the other way sulking. Luka knowing this could drag on, just takes the card and puts it in his back pocket immediately.

"Is that all? Are we done?"

"Yup, that's all! You can go now!"

Without another word, Luka dashes out of the school towards the gate as Noel followed suit. She walks down to the first floor and opens her locker to take her shoes before finally walking out of the school towards the main road. As she does so, she smiles to herself.

'I wished he asked me out. I'm grateful of him after everything he did today. He doesn't seem like a bad guy after all.'

The sun is now almost gone as barely any shadow is cast by the buildings and trees. The birds make chirped as they nested among on the trees, indicating bedtime. Noel walks home on a road that leads back to the city as the building and the skyscrapers lit up mixed with the reddish hue from the setting sun, indicating that it would be nighttime soon.

* * *

\- Central District, near Red Light District, Tokonosu City -

Luka runs past crowds as he fights against time to reach his uncle's shop, knowing this is a peak hour of the day. Usually, the customers who came to Uncle Valery's shop are quite impatient and would leave even if the schedule was a minute late but if it's the old man, he would usually be patient and wait, but even he has limits to his tolerance. The old man could be smiling but at the same time, he could be showing his disappointment. He's really is good at hiding his true expressions so it's always hard to tell what he's thinking. Luka turns around the street corner, finally standing before the 2 story shop house owned by his Uncle. Luka quickly walks up to the door and swings open, hoping that he wasn't too late. Who knows how hard his Uncle's going to yell at him.

**\- End of Prologue -**

\- **Next up Chapter 1, Before the Dead's Harvest –**

* * *

**Afterword**

Hello readers, if you have made it this far, thanks for reading this long prologue till the end. I know, I got carried away and wrote a few scenes too long but I wanted give this story story a chance to introduce the characters more clearly and add more details to the background of the story before the events leading up to the Zombie Pandemic. Something that the Original story didn't manage to do so, which is understandable as it is an action shounen manga. You just can't keep they boy waiting, can you? With an extra helping of boobs of course. Anyways about our Main Protagonist, you would have seen during the prologue that he has some serious skills in martial arts which doesn't seem to be coordinated or formal like how the anime's Hisashi Igou was with his Black Belt Karate. In addition, there's flexibility of his reactions and even abilities to comprehend his surroundings like how he knew the size and count of the individuals in Furukawa's gang before he even saw them, just by using the voices and sounds. This would be explained in a later chapter if I have time, possibly in a third chapter but there would be a hint or multiple hints in the next chapter as to what he was before he arrived in Japan. Until then, please enjoy this prologue while I go write the first chapter. Thank you.

P.S I think have strands of my hair growing white. I might need a little bit of reality check now.


	4. Chapter 1: Before the Dead's Harvest

**Introduction**

In the 21st Century, the world has taken a new shape as the Cold War came to an end with NATO being victorious over the USSR. The United States controls military bases all over the World, stretching from the Eastern Pacific to Northern Europe and from East Africa all the way up to the Middle East supported by Turkey, UAE and Israel. This sphere of influence continued to grow relentlessly. In the years after the collapse, U.S and its NATO allies have attempted to coerce or manipulate several east European countries, formerly part of the Eastern bloc into joining the European Union and potentially NATO as they plan to expand, in order to "keep the enduring peace and freedom of people around the world from Tyranny and Aggression". Due to this, Russia had growing concerns since the beginning of the collapse as the West kept their hands out of the country's failing economy and aiding only a few high ranking bureaucrats who agrees to become vassals in return for financial gains. This new tension escalated with the Invasion of Iraq and The War on Terror, until it finally reached its peak with the Invasion of Georgia, when Russia finally came to realize that they couldn't trust the West and thus, began the efforts to modernise and re-equip military equipment in all branches of the Russian Military. The West knowing this, made their own efforts to counter the new advances of the Russians by reactivating their cold war weapons programs, one of the most prominent is Bioweapons.

In this timeline, Bioweapons have taken the forefront beyond nuclear weapons research and on par with the effort in military drones research. Across many nations, it became that the only way to ensure legitimacy of governments and absolute security is through possession of biological weapons which are essentially the new Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD) strategy. The invading country maybe victorious initially but after releasing the bio weapon, the contagion will lay dormant in the host bodies of the enemy soldiers and eventually spreading to the invaders' homeland once they return. This would lead to countless deaths in both countries and most likely the rest of the world as Bio weapons don't discriminate between friend and foes. The new advancements in gene editing makes this a possibility. The dark scourge looms over the atmosphere as nations around the world braces for the beginning of a new war never witnessed before in the history of mankind.

* * *

**Ch.1: Before the Dead's Harvest**

\- Valery's Tools and Repair Shop, Red Light District, Tokonosu City-

The Sun comes up in the distance of the horizon gradually painting the sky from hues of light purple-blue to a mellow orange. The street lights switches off once again just as the songs of the morning birds resounds through the calm skies. In the neighborhood, the neon flush lights from the nightclubs after a night of wild partying blinks shut one after another, eventually all of them as the rays sunlight reaches the streets. Once again, the city streets are bustling with people, doing mundane tasks such as, travelling to work, preparing to open shops, and having exercises in the parks as does some senior citizens and fitness enthusiasts. All while everything in the Red Light Districts remains quiet as there is barely anyone who works there, save for those just passing thorough and some shops like Valery's that couldn't afford to be in the shopping district. On the tool shop's 1st floor, there's the main emporium room with shelves of tools encased behind tempered fiber glass locked by a steel cage door. There's a small kitchen at the back of the shop which had seen better days as it seems seldom used. Luka knows how to cook but he uncle insists that he eats outside as their expenditure comes quite peachy for gas bills. Then, there's the workshop and bathroom. The workshop is a room used for custom jobs, fixing things and even occasionally as Luka's makeshift study room. In the far back of the workshop are shelves and crates full of supplies for the merchandise and materials for the jobs, some are draped in cloth to protect them. On the 2nd floor, there are two bedrooms, Valery's and Luka's Bedrooms. Valery's is just plain, it includes a small desk next to a bookcase where a laptop sits, a wooden wardrobe in the far corner of the room, a ceiling fan which is essential during summer and a radiator to keep warm during winter. His mattress lays next to the window looking out at the back alleyway that stretches across from one side of the block to the other. Luka's room, is just as similar except there's a few additions, most notably is the punching bag which cantilevers from the ceiling, in the opposite side of the room is the study table which happens to be next to the window. Luka doesn't' hate the table, but he prefers using the workbench in the workshop as it allows him to sit on a chair rather than having his legs cramped on the bedroom floor. Luka sleeps deeply on the mattress next to the study table after an exhausting chain of events yesterday. Not even the sunlight shining through the window, cast over his eyes could wake him up. His phone alarm rings.

*BEEP* *BEEP* *BEEP-BEEP*

Luka slowly opens his eyes as he wakes up to the weird noise which happens to be his phone alarm. He taps the alarm off as it stops and looks at the phone. He didn't react for a moment until he realizes what time it is. Why of course! It's 7 am! The kids at are probably heading to school by now and that's only because most of them live closer to school than he does. It will take him 1 hour to arrive at a bus stop and another 5 minutes to rush to school. Realizing this, Luka jumps up and runs straight across the room to his wardrobe as he hurriedly removes a hangar with a shirt and a fold of trousers. The wardrobe contains Luka's personal items he brought with him when he immigrated to Japan. In the wardrobe, a few of these can be seen as they include his past memorabilia: An Old Novel Book with a title written in Russian, "Under the Moscow nights", his personal stash of poker cards, a few Polaroid photos of him when he was younger, a music CD featuring Russian popstar Oleg Gazmanov and a military uniform with a "K" labelled on the rank hangs on the rail. In the furthest corner, there's a picture frame, showing a group of young boys dressed in military camo fatigues posing in front of what seems to be a military barracks with a tall mustached man at the rear middle wearing the same fatigues but with a maroon beret. A boy who looks similar to Luka can be seen in the photo with a similar scar, but with a much shorter haircut. There's a typed annotation in the lower right corner of the photo which upon closer inspection reads, "Colonel Pronin and the boys, Site-UZ585 'Tur'."

Luka tosses his pajamas aside as he quickly shoved his body into the school uniform, this time it's the summer uniform. He slam shuts the wardrobe, grabs his school bag and rushes downstairs. Within moments, he's outside his uncle's shop and he continues running towards the main road. Reaching the main road of CBD area, Luka turns around the corner and brushes past people as he hurries to the bus stop. He sees the bus number on a bus as it comes to stop at the designated place, it's the number that'll take his close enough to the school! Luka sprints faster as the last passenger is boarding the bus. Just as the bus door was about to close, Luka jumps in at the right moment. The bus driver looks astonished at the boy, as he had never seen a student crazy enough to try squeezing in on a closing bus door. Then he just points his finger at the card reader gesturing him to tap in and take a seat, pretending to ignore what just happened. The bus shuts the door completely this time as the bus takes off to the other side of town.

* * *

\- Tokonosu Daiichi High Main Road, 1 Hour later –

The bus reaches the road leading to the school and stops at a station just before the last stop where Luka needs to get off. The bus moves again, as it drives towards the last stop before returning to the CBD. Suddenly, the car at the front of the bus stopped and the bus stopped too on the middle of the road nowhere near a checkpoint. Soon all the cars honked, even though it is very rude to honk at other people's cars in Japan, right now no one cares about any bit decency, especially when they are all late for work. The bus driver honks his horn too, feeling upset about the sudden stoppage in the traffic. If the cars in front don't move now, Luka is most certainly going to get a long detention by being forced to stay outside of class, and a long detention means no lessons, and that means he just threw his own money at the school and received nothing in return. Luka walks up next to the driver and so did the other passengers.

"Dear Passengers, please be seated. There's nothing to be worried about. This bus will reach its destination in time, I will make sure that it does."

The driver breaking the traffic rules, pushes the bus out of the line and drives along an adjacent lane. Luka looks through the window and sees a small line of cars behind a parcel delivery truck which had stopped. As the bus passes the window of the delivery truck, Luka sees two men with grey blackened skin inside slumped in their seats, with blood oozing out from their mouth. Luka could sense that there's something seriously wrong here but he couldn't do anything about it as he's not a traffic police officer. He simply snaps a photo of them and takes note of it as the bus steers back onto the original lane.

Soon he arrives at the bus stop and as the bus opens its doors, he runs out of the bus without a even breather to stretch his legs as he seems used to it. After a few minutes, he finally arrives in front of the school, but sees a nasty surprise. He realizes that the school's gates are now closed as he stands before the large metal bars that is barring him from taking his lessons. Luka clicks his tongue against his lips as he realizes this. If only he hadn't stayed behind yesterday, if only he had cut the conversation short and ran home sooner. Oh bother.

* * *

\- Central District, Near Red Light District, Tokonosu city, Yesterday -

The city's night life is vibrant with lights emitting hues of red, blue, green and yellows as pedestrians commute the CBD towards home after a long day's work. Some went to the diners and bars, looking for something to eat and drink to their heart's content, while others refused their merry colleagues as they didn't want to take any chances with their spouses complaining to them about not coming home early, but to some, their work is just starting. Luka rushes onwards as he dodges past pedestrians in one of the most crowded times of the day in Tokonosu city. He knew there's no enough time as the customer is probably waiting for at least 15 minutes by now as he tries to run as fast as he could, turning around corners of streets and buildings as he finally reaches one of the most infamous places in Tokonosu, a place full of vice and amour. At every turn of the street, weird old men, shady advertisers and of course, the girls dressed in skimpy revealing clothes, some not even wearing anything more than a swimsuit advertising their services and can be seen emerging as if they've come out of their dwellings to look for prey. Luka ignores them as he turns straight around a corner of a road and stops next to a certain building, which looks abit worn down and has a neon sign in bright red that read's "Valery Tools and Repair Shop".

Luka quickly opens the wooden door and gets inside, where two men, a middle aged Caucasian man behind the counter and a much old man wearing a black suit jacket, fedora, black leather gloves and a pair of black Italian designer dress shoes. The old man carries two luggage, one is a business suitcase adorned with a gold flower on the side and a larger suitcase that can be rolled around, presumably his personal belongings. The old man gives a faint smile at Luka and waves at him, ushering him to come in as he is about to share with him the details of the job. His uncle looks frustrated as Luka usually comes home straight after school.

"Hey Luka! What took you so long boy! Do you know how long Mr. Kuzen has been waiting?!"

"15 minutes?"

"No! It's been 30 minutes! And—WHY is there blood all over your shirt?!"

Valery points at Luka's shirt which seems to be dripping with blood.

"It's just red paint. Some guy renovating a shop spilled some on me. It was my fault."

"No! I can smell iron from here! That's not paint! You had gotten into a fight boy?!"

"No, I swear it's just paint. It just smells like iron."

"You dare_UGH! Never mind, just get changed quickly lest people get wrong idea and come down quickly afterwards."

"Yes sir."

Luka rushes straight for his room upstairs to get changed as Valery and Mr. Kuzen chats downstairs while they wait.

"I'm apologies Mr. Kuzen. The boy is just unpredictable sometimes. I will ensure that this doesn't happen again."

"No worries, Valery. Boys have their own problems I can attest to that myself when I was growing up. All that matters is that the crafts man is here and will be ready soon to receive the job."

Though the man seems content at least with the fact that Luka is here, his face hides something more serious as he seems somewhat anxious. Then the old man adds,

"Besides, this is going to be the last order he takes from me. I'll be leaving for a long business trip soon."

Hearing that from Mr. Kuzen, Valery became curious as to why this would be the last job from his favorite customer.

"Mr. Kuzen, may I ask as to why this is so? Were we not good service to you?"

"It would be best you don't know Valery. I'm a man with many names and many lives before, someday a time comes for me to abandon them to receive a fresh slate that can be written once again, much like a cycle. At least that's how I see life at its very bare bones. A cycle that keeps on renewing."

"Well…, if you say so. Still, it's sad that you will gone and I will miss you as my best paying customer."

"I'm sure there will be more customers like me Valery. There's always a need for a tool shop that doesn't keep the details of their customers on the register. They might even pay bigger sums than I did."

"Thanks for the encouragement. I guess the shop will have to bear with it for a while."

Valery opened his shop in the early 2000's after years of working as a dock worker at Nagoya Harbor saving enough money to move to Tokonotsu where he planned to aim big. He initially became a sailor after the Soviet economy collapsed in the 1990s which was when he travelled to Japan, liking the location of the place and the safe atmosphere compared to Russia which was in turmoil, full of riots and gang violence during the time. Unfortunately, Valery didn't manage to get successful enough and was instead confined to a small shop in the little known side of town where not a lot of normal customers go to. There were occasional shady individuals who frequents his shop to use his services on condition that he doesn't keep record of the transactions in return for large sums of money. Having no choice, Valery complies with them and since then has been servicing such types of people with Mr. Kuzen being the best paying of them all. Valery acquainted Kuzen five years ago when his shop was struggling and since then he came to his shop for mundane repairs and modification/adjustment of things including leather wear, containers, tools and customizing padlocks. Valery was proficient with these tasks as he worked on various odds jobs in Russia and he was an Army mechanic during his conscription years. Since Luka immigrated to live with his uncle two years ago, Valery discovered that the boy too has a talent in the crafts and though they were improvised and crude, Valery trained him by correcting the usage of the tools and methods. In a short amount of time, Luka adapted well to his techniques and he was repairing and crafting things much more efficiently compared to the crude welds and cuts made before then.

As they were conversing, Luka changed his clothes and comes down the stair as fast as he could. Once he arrived, the two men looked at the boy and smiles at him.

"Luka, are you ready to hear me out?"

"Yes, sir."

Soon Luka gets down to business by ushering the old man to the back of the shop. requests Valery to stay at the front counter of the shop while he and Luka head to the workshop room to discuss the details privately. Once the two were inside the room, Mr. Kuzen tells him about the job.

"Alright, here's the details boy."

Kuzen hands out a list of things to modify the suitcase decorated with the golden insignia, then he explains it in details as to what he means by each of the items. Luka listens intently to the details till the last item in the list. After comprehending the details of the modifications to be made, Luka confirms that he understood by reiterating everything from his own words and how he plans to do so.

First of all, the outside of the case needs to be replaced, by removing the insignia and plastering a new leather piece over the suitcase with a logo that represents an existing company that is associated with. This means removing the entire outer leatherwork and carefully masking the inner layer with a fitting that would ensure that the leather cover remains intact before replacing the metal brackets in the corner. Additionally, Kuzen wants there to be a layer of pure aluminum film over the interior lining, plus padded walls of industrial Styrofoam with a rectangular dimension cut out in the middle secured by soldering. Before Luka seals the interior with solder, Kuzen will transfer a folder and a small rectangular parcel to be placed in the padded wall from his big roller suitcase, Luka doesn't ask about what they are, knowing Kuzen is not the type to give free info despite being friendly. Finally, he wants the suitcase handle to be reinforced with additional metal clips in order to support it and additionally modify the suitcase combination lock with a heavier sliding button which won't move even with the right digits unless the pin lock next to it is turned clockwise. As Luka manages to remember all the steps, he quickly proceeds with the first step removing the L-shaped clamps with a screwdriver, knowing this job will take a while before he can sleep.

\- A few Hours Later -

After adjusting the O-rings in the lock mechanism and making sure the weight of the suitcase is equal on both sides, Luka calls out to who waited patiently in the corner of the room.

"It's complete, sir. You may try it out now."

Kuzen walks up to the large table in the middle of the room with bit of aluminum, leather and wood shavings scattered around, along with the old insignia that once bored on the suitcase. Kuzen tries it out and seems to be satisfied with the expression on his face. Kuzen then opens the lid of the suitcase before opening the zip on his larger suitcase, taking out a bundle of Car Magazines, Instruction Manuals and Sales Room Catalogues of the latest car models in Japan. He then closes the suitcase, searing the sliding hinges shut, resetting the lock combination and changing it, before he turns the pinhole next to it counter-clockwise.

*Click* the suitcase is locked and ready to be carried as Kusen extends his palm to Luka in handshake gesture.

"Thank you, Luka. I appreciate all your hard work."

"No problem,…..but now about the payment."

chuckles, which is rare coming from him.

"Hehe, a serious one, huh? Well, that's a professional attitude and you're going to need it later down in life. Here's your payment."

Kuzen gives Luka a large wad of cash in 10,000 yen notes totaling 600,000 yen, which is enough to cover the shop bills, living expenses including rent and Luka's school fees. Additionally, a small set of keys with a small oval shaped keychain. Luka attempts to return the set of keys.

"Hey old man, I think you should check your eye therapist before you leave. You seem to be giving me something that belong to you."

"Haha, nope. My eyes are as sharp as a rabbit! I actually gave this to you as a parting gift. I'm not returning to this country for quite some time. So, take it."

Kuzen hands back the keys.

"Oh, I almost forgot."

Kuzen then hands out another piece of item, a hand written piece of paper indicating two addresses, one which is close by near a department store.

"I don't need either of them. Why are you giving me these?"

Kuzen, smiles with his eyes showing an expression that Luka hasn't seen before from him.

"I have expectations in you. I believe that you can do something I wasn't able to do. This key is personally my last payment to you. It has nothing to do with the job. The key holds all of my hope that is left in this country. I insist you take it, and you use it. Follow the addresses I gave you and you'll find out where the key goes."

Seeing Kuzen being so insistent on offering the set of keys to him. Luka cannot refuse as he takes them and drops them into his pocket.

"Okay, thanks."

"Good, I'll be heading off to the airport now. Thank you for everything, Luka. Farewell."

The old man without another word, takes off as he exits the room, out of the shop and finally out to the streets disappearing into the night, possibly never returning. In a way, Luka and the mysterious old man may have shared more than a few similarities as if he's the older version of Luka himself.

Uncle Valery comes into the workshop and asks Luka if he has the payment. Without looking at him, Luka calmly raises the wad of cash in the air with his right arm with Uncle Valery breathing a sigh of relief.

"At least he didn't forget to pay, I saw him ran off earlier and I was worried, though a little surprised."

Luka appears to not care what his uncle said, he could only remember the face of the old man who he has known since he arrived here. He couldn't forget that faint smile from his face. Just what did he see in Luka? He didn't do anything to deserve a smile as they were just doing business. He stops thinking of it as he turns towards the door and hands the wad of cash to his uncle before walking out of the room, heading upstairs to his bedroom to sleep as it's very late now.

"*Sigh*…what a crazy day, getting beaten up by thugs, a weird girl tell me her contacts for no reason and an old customer giving me his personal belongings. I think my head's going to ache a lot more tomorrow after this."

Currently, the time is 1:30 am. It took some time with a couple trials and errors getting 's suitcase modified to specifications. The part with changing the locks took the most time, filing down the o rings and adjusting the pressure of the sears and the slide to click together. Luka hopes to never work on locks again, as it was a real pain in the ass.

As he was just about to dive onto his futon mattress, he saw a piece of card that he must have dropped earlier while changing clothes. He picks it up and realizes it is Noel's contact details.

"Oh, it's her's."

He wants to store it away on his bookshelf yet at the same time, he feels uneasy about not searching up the contact on his phone. He has read on the culture forums before, that it is not polite to ignore name card when presented by a colleague or a business partner and shoving it in the pocket afterwards. This is considered rude in the country and Luka deeply feels that he has to follow the rules to fit in to society.

'You've gotta follow the flock', he remembers Kenichi words from earlier yesterday. He accepts and opens his phone contacts to enter the name, number and the Twitter username in the page. Then, he decides to check out the website on Twitter in his phone browser. He registers a random account for himself, 'Kamemaru', before redirecting to see Noel's Twitter page. The page is decorated with themes of light pink, sky blue and mint green, and a picture of an anime cat. The middle top of the page reads 'Welcome, have a nice latte and enjoy my page. _Amusez-vous!'_

"Again, writing words that I don't understand. I wonder how her friends put up with her."

He then scrolls down to see her posts. Some of them are her drawings and some are videos of her recording herself singing.

'No, I won't listen to them. Anything that doesn't sound like Oleg Gazmanov won't sit well with me.'

He keeps scrolling downwards as he sees a lot more things, gymnastics, ballet dancing, fencing, piano play, and even violin and painting. He keeps scrolling and the more he does, the wider the range becomes. She has various awards both in France and in Japan, and all of them are top champ awards for juniors. Best performances, best plays, best writings, best academics the list goes on and they all center on national competitions. She has even learnt Judo, Karate and even Skeet Shooting. To make things more astonishing, she did all that in a span of 3 years and kept changing every 5 months to do something else. Luka couldn't imagine what kind of person Noel really is, and yet compare her to what he saw earlier today. If only she had more tactfulness, she could've turned this into a profession. Even the martial arts skills she has when compared to Luka's fighting arts. Noel's is applicable in a professional sports setting while Luka would just end up tearing someone's head apart if he uses his techniques. Maybe she's just an innate genius who hasn't realized her potential.

It took a year of learning for Luka to get used to his subjects at school and even as he tried to learn all his Japanese subjects, using all his concentration power, he only manages to get to a C class.

'Enough. People are people. There's no changing it.'

He sets the alarm, closes his phone and heads to sleep trying to forget about everything that has happened yesterday. The half-moon sits directly up high in the night sky overlooking the city as the streets remains dead quiet with the occasional cold gusts of wind blowing through the streets and a dog or two howling and barking. But in the nightlife district, the sounds are live with music blaring from speakers, reverberating off the walls of buildings nearby as the night is still young for them. Luka had no problem sleeping previous nights but now after a long period of exhaustion he feels a little too sensitive to the noises. He covers his head with the blanket as he eventually manages to drift to sleep.

\- Tokonosu Daiichi High, Present time –

Luka looks at the school gate in front of him, which stands between him and his classes, paid for with his hard earned cash. There no way this gate is going to prevent him from getting to his class. He's going to find a way to sneak in without anyone noticing.

"I'll show you, Damned School. You're not eating my money just like that."

**\- To be Continued -**


	5. Chapter 2: The Spring of The Dead

**Lingual Legend**

"sample text" – normal conversation

'sample text' – thoughts of a character

*sample text* - sound effect

\- Insert Text - - Time lapses

/ Insert Text / - To be continued

* * *

**Chapter 2: The Black Spring**

\- Tokonosu Daiichi High, Present time –

Luka look at the gate in front of him, which stands before him like a barrier preventing him from getting to his class. There has got to be a way to sneak in without anyone noticing.

Suddenly a guard walks up to gate to look around as Luka immediately moves to cover by the compound walls. There's no use convincing the guard to open the gate, he knows the guard from his previous encounters that he doesn't care about anything other than sitting at the little guard house next to the gate. The man had shooed off students before, even if they were just a few minutes tardy after he closes the gates. If he sees him now, he might attract the attention of the school's principal which would make sneaking more complicated. The less people see him, the better.

Luka carefully backs off as the guard turns away, probably having seen him out of the corner of the eye before. The walls around the gate aren't that high, probably only 7 to 8 feet tall as Luka is 6'2" feet tall, but problem is when he gets inside as the area is wide open and there's a lot of windows exposing the front lawn. There's no way to get past from the front gate walls without getting noticed. Additionally, there's are 4 guards that patrol the school but fortunately, Luka is familiar with all of them and their set routines. While this guy at the front gate reads newspaper while no one's watching, the 2nd guard who patrols the mid-section of the school lawn may come around and prompt him to also get up and stare at the gate. Then the 2nd goes back into the school front lawn, he sticks up behind the tree to watch something on his phone while no one watches him and only goes back when the 3rd guard who comes through the wing connecting the main building to the gym hall. The 3rd guy is the most vigilant but his patrol root is much longer and extends to the Gym hall and back through the wing. The 4th Guard patrols the opposite side in a similar manner but he always sits on a mini transformer box behind the school's field storage shed smoking cigarettes when no one's watching, and only pretends to walks around the school's track field fence and swimming pool when the Vice-principal comes around to check. Also this bastard likes to peep into the pool's shower room and stares at the pool when there's girls around.

Luka makes up a plan in which he'll make a move right now as the 2nd guard is returning back to his position close to the lawn and garden. The 3rd guard is probably standing at the Wing right now but he would go back once the 2nd returns. 4th isn't even worth mentioning but even he would spot Luka if he turns around to a sudden noise. Luka moves along the wall adjacent to the right side of the school wing where the insolent 4th guard is. He steps back about 2 meters as he looks around for others who might be walking on the road. Nobody, there nobody on the street and it seems awfully quiet today. Isn't this Tuesday? No matter, Luka wastes no time as he bursts into a short sprint and using all the momentum from the sprint, He applies a counter force with his foot against the wall while he jumps, and hooking his hands onto the ledge of the wall top at the same time. He makes sure his weight is balanced during the pivot as he reaches over the wall to the other side. He lands on the ground, bracing his knees and ankles to bend forward as it transfers the force to the ground rather than stopping on his ankles. Once he landed on the inside of the school. He rushes to a nearby tree and thicket and lies down belly flat as the 2nd guard goes back to his position. Up on the 2nd floor's window the school's vice-p can be seen walking across the classroom hallway.

'Good this means that he is still occupied with his other duties. I can make a break for it now.'

Soon, the 3rd Guard turns away going back to the school gym, while the 2nd Guard soon looks away from Luka's position and turns towards the tree while he fiddles with his smartphone. Luka quietly got up without disturbing the local vegetation and crouch walks away one foot ahead at a time while keeping his feet close to the ground to avoid making loud noises. He does so well coordinated that he reaches the right wall of the school in only a matter of seconds. He rushes straight along the side of the wall before he hides behind a corner wall which extrudes from the main building as he looks out to see the guard standing where he is expected to be, at the edge of the track and field fence. The entrance into the back of main school building is just right around the corner, past the section walling off the shower room. The guard seem to be standing idly smoking near the fence and seems to not move from there. Luka realizes this chance as he sneaks past the corner and quickly enters through the door. Now inside the building, Luka has to reach the second floor from the current ground floor if he wishes to reach class before they start the attendance registration. Luka rushes up to the 2nd floor, passing the other classrooms where teachers were already starting with their registration. He only hopes that he'll make it in time.

\- Inside Class 2C -

The students are all settled down as they chattered about to each other, some of their conversations involve the tests from yesterday, some talk about their plans for club activities after school and some talked about the incident yesterday with the Russian student and rumors about him beating up Furukawa's gang, hence the reason why none of them came to school today.

"Hey, you heard? About the rumors of a fight yesterday at the roof?"

"Un, I think I heard abit about it, something to do with a Russian with a scar on his face. You know anything more about it?"

"Yeah! I heard that the Russian beat up all of Furukawa's friends and himself! I also heard that they are at home instead of the hospital since their injuries weren't bad enough but it made them unsuitable for walking to school due to severe muscle pains."

"That's crazy! Nobody would dare go up against Furukawa! No one who did up until this point came out of it without being sent to the hospital's ICU! Just who is this Russian guy?"

"Do you get it? He's actually in our class!"

"Heh?! Seriously?! This dude he's in our class!?"

"Yeah, I heard rumors from our school's unofficial Facebook group that the guy is actually an adult who's just a year older than us and apparently skipped a grade in middle school at his home country due to a fight. He also might have been affiliated with gangsters before."

"Ehh, that's scary….how come our school accepts people like him?"

"Yeah, but still I'm glad that Furukawa is gone for now. I would rather have a bad guy who won't attack unless provoked than a bad guy who goes around looking for people to beat up. Good thing I'm not on his bad side."

Kenichi overhears the chat about his friend among his classmates. Luka has become quite a bit infamous after his exploits yesterday in defeating one of the most feared school gangs in the school district. There's even talks about the possibility of him taking over the school as a new gang leader which is utter nonsense to Kenichi. Luka isn't that type of a person, he just wants to live like a normal high schooler and he went through so much just to keep that status quo.

Kenichi worries that his friend might never come back to school since he seems to be later than usual, when he has always arrived before anyone to class, reading textbooks on his own desk. Kenichi feels he's going to miss one of "the most down to earth" person he has met at school and it's his fault that led Luka to quit school.

"Kiritsu!" class rep commands as the teacher arrives.

"Ohiyougozaimasu! Sensei!"

The teacher puts down a stack of textbook and files as he took out an attendance sheet from one of them.

"Okay class, raise your hand and reply when I call out your name. Tatsuo…"

"Hai!"

"Misato." "Hai!"

The teacher continues to call out names as it seems very unlikely that Luka would come to class, possibly never again. Kenichi clenches his teeth as the next name is at Luka's assigned table.

"Serugievu (セルゲイエフ)…, Serugievu (セルゲイエフ)? Hmm…"

Kenichi grimaces a little as he realizes his suspicions. He friend is never going to come to school again.

*Krraat*

He hears a soft sliding of the door behind the standing students. Then, out of the corner of his eye, he sees a person crouches into the class room trying his best to not make any noise. This person has an unmistakable light blue hair as Kenichi realizes who that is.

"LUKA!" Kenichi shouts as the class heard that name they too turned back to look at Luka who just almost to his seat. Luka stops and slowly turns to his right to see everyone staring at him.

"Hey is that the guy you mentioned earlier. He's got a scar and European looks."

"Yeah, no doubt. That's the guy who beat Furukawa."

"Ahhhh!"

The whole class was thrown into disarray as the teacher tries to keep the commotion down but to no avail as entire class moves towards the back to see the no. 1 badass of the school.

"Hey Hey! Is it true that you defeated Furukawa!? Please tell us more!"

"Are you free during lunchbreak? You won't mind if we invite you to sit next to us?! Maybe you would talk about how you beat Furukawa's ass?"

"Hi, Serugievu-san. Can I please have your contact? I would like to take you to a good place where we can eat. Is it not okay?... (/▽/)"

"Iyaaa! I'll make it even better! I'll bring you to a nightclub that my dad co-owns and I'll let you have all the privileges and spoils of the VIP room where you can get all the drinks you want, and….I'll let you have some privacy with me. I don't mind even without some rubber."

"Dude! How would you like to join our Karate club?! I promise it'll be great time! I'll let you even take a senior role since you are a year older than us!"

"Nonono, don't listen to that guy! Join our Boxing club! We can help you nurture your skills to it's full potential! In Fact we'll even make you our next club president if our votes are in your favor!"

"Why won't you join the School Disciplinary Committee and teach more bastards like Furukawa to not mess with the school rules?! You look like a great candidate."

Rather than feel glad about himself, Luka sense there being more responsibility in him from now on as the whole class is all over him, maybe even the entire school too.

'Haha, I wish but if I took up either martial arts. I don't think any of you would be coming to school next day. So I must refuse. The same goes for the Disciplinary Committee, I don't think you guys would like what I do once I get my hands on a poor delinquent, assuming I even wanted to.'

'What the heck?! Nightclubs?! Privacy?! Without Rubber?! Are you out of your mind kid?! I haven't even graduated from school yet to find a proper job to take care of 2 extra mouths to feed! Do you even realized what you are saying?! Even so, I'll think twice about the nightclub since I already had enough trouble sleeping night with all the crappy techno songs they play down there!'

The teacher slams his textbook to the table to signal the class to settle down. The whole classroom went quiet and everyone went back to their seat. Fuming, the teacher only said one sentence.

"Serugievu, get out. You have disrupted the class, and you are late. You are not allowed in until after break. Out now."

Sighing, Luka walks out of the class. Just as he left the room, Kenichi also got up and follows him.

"Mr. Mikazuki! Sit down! You are hereby at risk of receiving similar punishment as !"

"Go on Sensei, I'm fine with it."

"You_! Hey! Get back!"

Too late, Kenichi too walks out of the classroom, as he takes his bag with him and walks up behind Luka. Luka seems to just pass through the hallway, possibly wanting to go downstairs.

"Hey! Are you already leaving school?! Everyone was excited to see you know?!"

"Yeah, what about it? They are just feel the gust of the moment. Everything will subside once this semester is over. They'll all just forget about what happened yesterday."

"Come' On! They like you! You can now have a great school life that you always wanted, yeah?"

"Maybe, but it's not meant to be like this. I said peace not tumult."

"Well fine, you'll see soon enough."

Luka knew this excitement will be gone in the coming months as people find new stuff to gossip about. What he did yesterday wasn't to make himself popular or to be noticed, it was to protect his friend. No matter what he does Kenichi wouldn't understand it since he doesn't know pain.

"So where are you going now?"

"Just want to go to the school garden and wait till Lunch Break. It's much quieter there."

"Mind If I follow you?"

"No, you should go back to class and probably apologize to sensei. I just want some privacy."

With one look on Luka's face, Kenichi understands that and recognizes that his friend does need some down time to himself. Besides, Kenichi already caused enough trouble to his friend.

"Okay, but if you need anything just come call me in class. I'll see you at break. Take care buddy."

"You too, Kenichi."

Kenichi walks back to class as Luka walks downstairs to the garden. As he walked to the garden, he notices a pile of wooden sticks and metal pipes, probably from a previous renovation project, as well as a saw, a nail gun and a hammer just in case. There's also a pair of pliers and a long cord of wiring for the electricity. He walks through the right door leading to the gym and heads to the green patch with several sakura trees. He sets down his bag near one of them, sitting down before he taking out a textbook from his bag so he can read for the remainder of the period. Next to the garden, a large field is setup for the Track and Field exercises. In truth, the field is used for many things besides running such as shot puts, high jumps and special sport events during the sports festival. On the tracks, a group of first year girls in their tracksuits can be seen partaking in their PE sessions, where they had to perform a lap run around the 200 m wide track ring. One girl can be seen 2 meters ahead of the others, as her long braided honeycomb blonde hair tied down at the end by a large elastic nylon ribbon trails along her back. She reaches the finish line 3 meters ahead of her classmates as they panted while she gave away only a few puffs from her chest seemingly managing her breaths well. She then turns to side and sees Luka as she runs towards him while waving.

"Hey! How do you think it was? Heh? I'm pretty fast right? Sensei says I finished in just shy below the school track team record. Just 5 seconds shy above the school's record of, 2:10 mins!"

Luka could only nod his head at her since he doesn't know what else to say. In fact, that was actually him who set the record just a year before during the school's sports festival. He was the third contestant representing his class's long distance running team and took the finish line just shy 0.5 meters ahead of the other contestants although he held back since he knew he could run a lot longer than them. He knew it wouldn't be worth mentioning otherwise.

"Uh huh. Well done."

"Huh?! Is that all you got to say, Mr. fish-face?! You must be so busy with your work that you can't even look at other people's accomplishments! How shut-in are you?"

"Uhm, I'm reading my textbooks. That doesn't count as work, it's called investment in personal worth. I don't need to achieve anything to prove myself."

"Hah! So if you do have anything to prove yourself, how are you going to get a job if you can't impress then?!"

"Kid, you don't know."

"What did you say?!"

The students from her class look on at the two having their arguments as they gullibly think they are a couple, blinded by their delusional shoujo ai fantasies.

"Hiyahhh! Look it's Kiriyama-san and that Russian student who beat up Furukawa and took her as his bride to be!"

"Ohh, I'm so jealous of Hotori-chan. Hogging that boy all for herself."

"Yeah, imagine…. having an older foreigner boyfriend who knows how to respect ladies and protect them from imminent danger. If only I'm as lucky as her!"

Luka could hear all the shrieks and giggles from her classmates as he knows well now that his peaceful serenity is now compromised by anybody who has heard about him or what he did since yesterday. A normal high school life will surely be missed.

"*Sigh* I'm going to pack up now. Catch you around kid."

"I'm NOT A KID! MOUGUUU!"

As Hotori pouts girlish tantrums from behind, Luka faintly smiles to himself. Remembering his own childhood, that had been whisked away from him long ago. Laughter and giggles resound within his heart as a nostalgic memory of the past as he knew of a man who held him up in his huge yet gentle arms, laughing together.

Suddenly out of the tranquil peaceful morning, shouts came ringing out from the front gate of the school as Luka immediately runs towards it by instinct.

"Hey! Where are you going?!"

Seeing Luka run off suddenly, Hotori follows him suit. As he arrives at the front of the school, just 80 meters away from him, he sees the source of the commotion as three guards are trying to stop two men from banging at the gate.

"HEY! GET OUT OF THERE! THIS IS A SCHOOL! YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED IN HERE UNLESS YOU ARE PERMITTED TO DO SO!"

"THIS IS THE LAST WARNING! IF YOU DO NOT MOVE AWAY I WILL CALL THE POLICE AND INFORM OF ATTEMPTED INTRUSION! AND IF YOU CONTINUE TO PERSIST, I WILL BEAT THE CRAP OUT OF YOU!"

The men held their batons tight to their grip as they prepare to attack the two intruders. Look closely, Luka recognizes the shirts the two figures were wearing! It's the same delivery men he encountered on the way to school! They look much more pale black now as well the absence of pupils in their eyes, and there's blood on their shirts which doesn't seem to belong to them and it looks brighter compared to the blood he saw in the delivery truck. The way the two men move looks different as they seem to sway their arms around in an uncoordinated fashion as they banged their head against the gate.

"WHAT'S GOING ON HERE!?" Another voice called out as a man approaches the scene from the Main Building. It's the vice-principal.

"Who are these people? Why are they here at the front gate? Get them out of here at this instance!"

"Yes sir!"

'Bloodshot eyes, white eyes. Grey skin, blackened skin….limp arms... NO! Don't tell me!'

Luka having analyzed the situation, sees the guard prepare to open the gate realizes what might happen next.

"DO NOT OPEN THE GATE! THEY AREN'T NORMAL! DO NOT OPEN THE GATE!"

Luka yell from the top of his lungs but it was too late.

One of the guards opens flipped the latch and slides the gate open while the others walk up to the two figures to handcuff them.

However, just as soon as the gate wasn't obstructing blocking their path the two supposed delivery men grabbed the guard and forced him to the ground, causing others to stare in shock as they bit into his face and tore his entire scalp apart exposing the skull.

"URRRRAGGGGGHHH! H_HEL_P! *GURGLE*"

He was done for as blood pooled around and the creature proceeded to tear open his chest and eat his still beating heart.

Hotori is shocked at the sight of the bizarre gruesome killing as she witnesses it unfold before her.

"What is that man doing to the guard? Why is he eating him?!"

The other one lunges to attack the second guard, who is still in shock. It bit him in the neck and tore out his tendons and the main artery causing blood to spray in all directions.

"AHH! AAAHH! AHHH! AAAAAAAAHH_! BLUURRRGGHH_!"

The 3rd guard and the vice-principal having realized what just happened, run back to the school in a hurry forgetting to close the gate in a panic.

Hotori continues to blurt out words in fear as her hands and knees start to shake.

Luka continues to observe the two creatures turn away from their prey after 3 seconds as the "prey" started to convulse in a seizure, uncontrollably spraying out blood before they got back up with the same white eyes as the 2 creatures that were once delivery men. At that moment, only one thing came to Luka's mind and he knew what it means.

'Protocol PSR-ZZ88 "Black Moth"'

He looks around his surroundings to find a weapon and sees a baton dropped by the fleeing guard, he grabs it before grabbing Hotori's hand and immediately dashing inside the school's Main Block. He then slides the glass door close before he quickly slams the bolt on the glass door shut to lock it in place.

"What was that!?"

"Hotori! Go around this floor and warn everyone about outside! Tell to lock their windows and the doors! Put up anything to block the openings"

"I-I saw_"

"THERE'S NO TIME FOR THIS! PLEASE JUST GO TELL EVERYONE IN YOUR CLASSES! I'LL GO TO MINE!"

Without another word, Luka rushes upstairs at a lightning pace while Hotori tries to recollect herself.

'He's right, there's no time for this! I've got to warn the others fast!'

Hotori runs to the nearest class and starts shouting, "There's a killing at school! Shut your windows! Block them up!"

Luka too started yelling into classrooms on the second floor with a sharp voice telling them, "SHUT YOUR WINDOWS! STOP EVERYTHING AND STAY INSIDE!"

The pair goes around telling everyone to shut the doors and blockade while a mysterious horde of shambling dead people who came back to life approaches from the south side of the school. Luka realizing the pace of the growing "them" as he call it, he runs into his classroom.

"THERE'S A KILLING SPREE OUTSIDE! STOP WHAT YOU ARE DOING AND STAY INSIDE!"

The entire class 2-C stares at Luka as soon as his voice let out into the room. Kenichi stands up surprised by his sudden appearance in the room. But Luka doesn't stop there, he was on to the next classroom.

"THERE'S A KILLER OUTSIDE! STOP WHAT YOU ARE DOING AND STAY INSIDE!"

He kept going as Kenichi runs outside too, only to see horde of "Them" emerging from the school's front gate. Upon seeing the grotesque looks and the sickly movements of their limbs, he too realized something's not right. Inoue runs out of her class after Luka interrupted her lessons.

"Hey Ken-chi what's going on?! I heard Luka come into my class to stop doing things!"

Inoue turns to look outside the window and sees a horde of "them" approaching.

"What are those people?! They look like corpses!"

"I don't know either Inoue but Luka seems very worried, I've never seen him like that before."

"President Inoue!"

Yoshijima, the head the disciplinary committee runs up to Inoue and Kenichi looking confused as much as they are.

"I'm going to follow him!"

"Hey wait!"

Inoue chases after Kenichi and so does Yoshijima.

Luka runs the 3rd floor to reach a small room next to the principal's office. A blare of microphone static rang out of the school's PA system as a voice starts to speak.

"Everyone, there has been an incident outside the school. Please remain calm in your seats and follow your teacher's instru_Hey who let!*POOF*_"

"Everyone! This is not a drill! I repeat this is not a drill! There has killing spree happening within the school right now! Do NOT let a single one with White eyes into the building! Shut your windows! Block them with anything! Stay Alert! Anyone outside, Gym and the Field, GET INSIDE NOW!"

The man in the PA broadcast room, the principal stares furiously at Luka as he forced his way inside.

"You! Young man, need to stay out! This is adult's work!"

"Yeah?! Then you're going to be walking around like a d***less greasy f***ball if you don't tell them that they need to start lining up and prepare for an evacuation."

In Japan, saying "d***" or "p****" or associating a person to a sex organ is the rudest form of insult that even hot-headed politicians would avoid. Having never heard a student swear like that to a teacher, not even the most delinquent child at school would do. The principal is fuming.

"Why you…! GET OUT! I DON'T WANT TO SEE YOU IN THIS SCHOOL EVER AGAIN!"

" !"

"Oh! Mrs. Matsumoto, please stay in your classroom for your own safety."

"I want an explanation on what is happening here!"

"Well, you see Mrs. Matsumoto_"

"I'll tell you what's going on! The school is about to be overrun with infected fleshing eating monsters if we don't do something right now to get everyone inside!"

"HYAAAAAHHHHH!"

"Get away from me!"

Screams can be heard coming from the field as Luka realizes that the student who were outside are now running around and will die soon if he doesn't run down there and tell them to get inside. Luka goes down the stairs gliding along the rails as he hurries to the first floor.

Inoue looks at the principal with a serious look on her face, the Principal listens to her.

"If this is true and he's not lying, tell the entire teaching faculty to stop the lessons and get someone to go assist with locking the doors shut after everyone is taken in! Understood?!"

"Yes, Ma'am!"

The principal with a new set of directives, tells the student to stop their lessons and requests the student council member, disciplinary committee and the faculty to assist with locking and barricading the door to the school with anything heavy they could find.

"I'm going down there to assist the council members! I will send someone up to relay a message if necessary!"

"I'm also going to get all the disciplinary committee members together! We need to find as many heavy things as we can to blockade!"

"I'll go down a help Luka." Kenichi said before he chased down the flight of stairs after him.

Luka gets to the first floor and grabs a lead pipe before he runs towards the south entrance of the school to let the students outside into the building. He quickly reaches the doors to the entrance and swings it wide open, before he yells at the student who are now struggling to get away from the horde just behind them. There are already a few dead or dying while being eaten alive.

"HURRY GET INSIDE! DON'T LOOK BACK!"

Kenichi catches up to Luka as he sees the chaos before him.

"Ken! Guard the doors! Take that stick lying just outside the entrance!"

Ken spots a 3 inch wide wooden staff, probably used for the field. He grabs it, gets outside the door and prepares to push 'them' away.

The students who were running on the tracks got inside first before the students who were previously playing baseball in another side of the field gets inside as well but some with bite marks. Luka immediately bars them from getting inside and knocks them out in the face with the baton, punching straight into their foreheads with the hard end hopefully long enough so they don't witness themselves getting eaten. A few of the zombies got close from the side and Kenichi shoves them away as he spots them.

"No! Don't shove them! Hit them right in the head! They won't stop till they get you!"

Kenichi in the heat of the moment obeys Luka's command, positions his staff vertically towards them and hits them in the head.

*splat*

The head cracked open and it fell but another is approaching. Kenichi couldn't move a movement before Luka delivers a swift and powerful kick to the middle of its chest sending it falling head first into the raised boundary of the door platform. 'splat' the back of the head cracked open, spilling gore all across the platform and the ground just outside.

"AHHHH!" One of the students was caught by one them but as it does so Luka responded with lightning fast reflexes dashes over and hits the arm grabbing onto the boy with a sharp and powerful baton strike. The pressure point on the elbow was targeted and it managed to break loose. It seemed to even break its bones.

*CRACK* "Oh god!" the freed kid runs inside as Luka delivers another strike to its head as it prepared to bite him, specifically in the center top of the head with the tip of the baton. He manages to crack open the top of the cranium and shoves the thick baton deep into the brain before kicking the body down.

Soon, all the student were inside as Luka gestures Kenichi to get inside the building too.

"Kenichi! Everyone's inside! Get in!"

"What about these guys?!"

"Don't take them in! Leave them!"

"BUT_!"

"LEAVE THEM! GET IN!"

Kenichi reluctantly complies and Luka closes the doors after that but suddenly one got inside. It tries to grab Kenichi but Luka immediately kicks its leg causing it to fall flat on the floor before he stomps on its head while trying to get up, delivering a sharp blow to it.

*SPLECH* It stopped moving as shards of the skull scattered. Luka pushes a lead pipe through the door handles before the undead outside started banging onto the door. Then, he took a small breath before he continued to the front entrance of the school. By now, there's 'them' all over the glass as they try to get inside but a few of the student council members were taking tables from the first year classrooms and stacking them on top one another upside down. Luka rushes over to them as he tries to bring more chairs and tables, one in each hand. Kenichi rushes over too and started bringing in chairs from the classroom where students and teachers inside also tries to barricade the windows with their books and tables too. Then, there's also the west wing where there's a door leading towards the open walkway to the gym, hopefully Inoue and the Big dude from the Disciplinary Committee got it covered. Just as he was saying, Inoue and big guy, Yoshijima runs over to the main entrance of the school.

"The gym had only a few people in it, just a few maintenance staff and a guard. They managed to get into the main building."

"That's great! Then that means everyone's safe, for now."

Luka continues to concentrate on his task while he heard out Inoue as he brings more chairs and tables. Then he asks her,

"Let's check the windows while we are at this. Make sure each class managed to block all windows."

Right behind Inoue, Hotori catches up to them at the main entrance, looking a bit exhausted going around yelling and helping people put up things to block the windows.

"Luka! I've checked all the classes on this floor and everything seems to be looking fine."

Luka nods at Hotori as he continues shifting tables around, trying to form a small secondary barricade between the static shoe lockers.

"Un, but even then, you should double check if the things used were stable enough and shifting the weight towards the window rather than just being beside it_"

"AHHHH!"

The cry came from one of the classrooms down the hallway. Kenichi being the closest rush into the classroom and finds two of the undead inside as they bit into one of the students and were tearing open his stomach to eat his intestines. Luka runs right by Kenichi and quickly kicks it off the student and bludgeons the dead straight into its eye socket with his baton while Kenichi swings his staff, bashing it into the back of the other's head splaying blood everywhere. Students besides him whimpered as the teacher too was shaken by it. Luka immediately uses a board and duct tape beside him to plaster it onto the window before he runs outside, grabs a nail gun he found earlier and quickly punches nails into each end of the board. Then he pushes a chair with a lot of books to lean against the window. The bitten student starts to convulse as he prepares to turn into one of them.

"I-It_hurts! Please…kill me!"

The boy begged for a swift end as he feels his energy draining away. Luka complies and just as he raises his baton, Kenichi yell at him.

"What are you doing?! Luka, stop this! Why do you want to kill him?!"

"He begged for it, is that yours to decide over his life? Do you even realized by now what's happening to this place?"

"I don't care about that! I don't know, maybe it's just rabies, maybe there's cure_!"

"How can you be so sure?! What if there isn't a cure? God forbid it takes years of research to even find one! Even then, even by then, there's only chances of a vaccine that would never work!"

Suddenly, the bitten student stopped bleeding and seems to drop dead, before his eyes open wide with white pupils.

"RRAAAGGHH!" The turned kid tries to get up but is pinned down by Luka as it tries to sink its teeth into Luka's foot. The students around him were afraid and started crying while the teacher simply froze where he is, taking no action. The rest in the hallway and the classrooms class rooms peers into the glass, looking at Luka as he presses down on the undead student. Inoue and Yoshijima could only look on as they too didn't know how to deal with such an incident. Hotori puts her hand over her mouth as she looks at the supposedly dead student that is still alive despite its vital organs having been torn apart.

The two boys, Hiiro and Youji snuck down to the first floor after they heard the loud crashing downstairs and went see what's going on. But it's not only just them, a number of student from the third year floor also came down to check on the noise as more student gather around the classroom.

"Damn, one of those things tried to get inside! Did you saw what those two guys inside did?! They just smashed their heads open!"

"Have they gone mad?! Are they also going to kill that kid too?!"

Youji looks shocked to see the dead student moving around like it came out of a horror film.

"This is ***** sick! What is that?!"

Hiiro tips his glasses and remember seeing something similar in a survival horror game.

"It looks like something you would expect from."

"But that's just a game! This is real! How can you be so sure that it is a 'zombie'?!"

"It… just looks like it. It's got white eyes. The guy probably turned into one of them."

"Stop kidding around, Hiiro!"

"I'm not kidding."

Youji turns to Hiiro and notices Hiiro face, looking more serious than usual.

"He has to kill it."

Youji shocked at his friend's conclusion, argues with Hiiro.

"What!? Did the stress broke your head too, Hiiro?! Look, that's a person! He's just sick!_"

"But he has died and returned! Even you would know that too don't you, Youji! A living person would not survive having their bellies ripped open!"

Youji looks at Hiiro with frustration and anxiety, but he looks again at the zombie, at the damage done to its body and realizes what Hiiro says is true. No one would survive that sort of damage to their vital organs.

Luka sensing the frightened stares of the students, looks around him while he clears his throat. There's a lot of student looking at him right now, in the classroom and from the outside hall they look at him anticipating to what he's doing to do next. Luka thinks carefully about how to deal with this situation, because if he kills this thing right now, everyone would panic and think that he's the murderer. This would stop the school from functioning and many more students will die. Then, he finally understands what he has to say.

"Do you see this? Take a good look, everyone. This kid used to be just like us, he may have parents who cared about him and entrusted him with a bright future. He may have a girlfriend who cares about him, he might have a "teacher"_"

Luka turns towards the teacher in the corner of the room as he shivers at the sight of the student.

"who had expected a lot from him and probably wanted him to succeed."

The undead student tries to get up again but Luka stomps back down relentlessly holding down on it.

"This boy, was like us, but just what if…., what if his parents saw him like in this form? Their son…, turned into a mindless murderer that seeks out flesh and in doing so becoming one of 'them'."

Luka points out to the barricaded windows at the dead leaning against the windows having heard the commotion in the room as they try to get inside. Their eyes have no pupils as they could only sense the people inside the building through hearing the sounds.

"'THEM'! The kind which can't see any colors of the world because they are blind! 'Them' that walks around hearing things but never know what it is only to hit dead ends as they pathetically search for it! 'Them' that can no longer taste good food because their tongues stopped working and the only thing they ate is flesh that stinks of iron and ammonia! 'Them' that can never smell fragrant flowers and good food that their mothers cooked for them heart fully, only to smell raw meat off the bones of a dying prey. 'Them' that no longer knows what it feels like to have emotions as their hearts stopped working."

He then points his baton aimed at the undead kid's face.

"This is who he is now and it is YOUR fault that you let him turn this way. He begged to be killed knowing what would become of him and now that he is one of 'Them' he is trapped inside this tomb which was his own body. His face will haunt those who know him and force them to a breaking point of no return, when those who cared about him stops caring about the world. When people stop caring about one another…, that is when we all become like 'Them'. Prisoners of our own bodies, forever."

The students look down to floor as they try to emphasize what Luka meant when he relates the boy to 'them'.

"But those of us, who live will continue to have memories within us. Those memories no matter how cruel they are, are a part of ourselves. We don't run away from it, we accept it for what it is. The ability to see, hear, smell, taste and the ability to feel emotions; those are what constitutes as our memory, and within them, the spirits of those who died continue to live on as memories of these events take are taking place right here, and right now."

Luka raises his eyes and looks at everyone including those down the hallway. After being ascertain that at least 3/4 of the school can hear him. Then he says the last part,

"From now on, if you find someone who has succumbed to this disease whether it's friend or family. You do not hesitate to take them out, to lay them to rest, to kill them. They would've wanted you do it, so they don't suffer anymore. Their memories will survive as long as you live. Make their deaths not be in vain, for giving yourself up is what will make their deaths meaningless! Live for their sake, live so you can tell your own kids what they were like when they were alive. Keep moving on so that there's a better chance of you living! Keep moving forward!"

Luka finally, swings his baton into the skull of the undead student as swiftly as possible, giving it a peaceful escape from this world.

"If you tell me that's not good enough of a reason. Then I don't know."

Students fell quiet for a moment but then one of them spoke.

"He's right. We have to live! And we fight for it!"

"Yeah, I can't die here like this! If I die at least I'll go out fighting whatever 'them' are!"

"If we end up like that kid, then there's no one left to remember him! We have to fight for his sake too!"

"OHHHHHH!"

Kenichi, Inoue and Yoshijima could only stand before Luka in astonishment after what seems to be a powerful speech even in such desperate times. The students in the classroom and the hallway cried out as it boosted their morale.

"Luka, you are really…."

Kenichi stops short of arguing with Luka as he realizes what Luka's saying now is true, more than ever. They have to fight if they wish to live, and for the sake of their own families too. To at least die fighting rather than to surrender to 'them' outside.

Luka knew what he had to say because these students have never experienced such traumatic things in a time of desperation whereas Luka was very intimate with all this. He knew that they will have to face their worst fears and accept the present as it is. Sooner or later they will have to survive in a world full of death and gave them a reason to fight for and to survive. He felt as if he's an older brother looking after kids who never knew what it is like to live a life filled with constant danger and pressure over their morals.

Hotori looks with into Luka's face and sees his eyes. They were the same eyes he had when he fought on the school roof with Furukawa. She senses that same emotion emitting from his face right now, the face of absolute determination. She smiles knowing she wasn't wrong about him and maybe underneath that façade, there's truly a person who cares about others.

As the students of Tokonosu Daiichi High were vitalized with the new found source of morale, the crowd of zombies outside the school compound continues to ram against the doors and windows as they sense noise emanating from within. Luka knows that they have to find a way to escape soon before their little barricade eventually falls to 'them', and knowing that he has managed to secure to cooperation of the school and the student, he now has a plan in mind. One which will require a combined effort.

'Let's begin, our breakout phase!'

**\- To Be Continued –**

**Next Chapter- Breakout of the Dead**

**Afterword**

Hey guys, if you didn't know, I have another site setup for the story. Checkout the Tumbler version at: blog/hotd-redscar

Anyways about the setup of this chapter, I made sure that in this fan story the protagonist wouldn't simply take someone he knows and runs away. Though it is understandable coming from the original story's protagonist Takashi, since he's human, Luka on the other hand was familiar with the scenario in some way or another and he is trained to deal with such a situation and many others too. This will be further explained in the next chapter's flashback as to why he knows about 'them' in the first place. The mysterious "Protocol PSR-ZZ88 '_Black Moth_'". Thank you for reading and I hope to see in the next chapter!

Spearmann66


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